Last weekend, I was in Wytheville, Virginia doing a little research and giving a couple of Lectures.
On Friday, I was lucky enough to spend time at the Wythe County Genealogical and Historical Association Regional Research Center:
This is their new home. Wonderful building, with lots and lots of great material. I spent time digging through notes and researching, including this map which has land owned by a John Snavely that I found in Joseph Cameron’s notes. Not sure which John Snavely this is, but given that the land was sold to Joe Hounshell in 1833 and I have a John Snavely in my records who lived from 1760-1833, I suspect that it is him. No known relationship, but it is likely it is related to my Snavelys some how.
Then I hopped over to the Wythe County Courthouse, where my cousin Bev Repass Hoch took me down to the basement and I was able to look through original chancery records, wills and deeds. Heaven! These particular deeds were from the early 1800s. Didn’t find my ancestors in there, but such a joy to look through these records.
The next day, I was lucky enough to present two lectures. I’ve included links to the PDFs for the slides below.
cluster genealogy 
It really is a treat to go through old records – even if you don’t find your people in them.