Bedford Public Library
321 North Bridge Street
Bedford, Virginia 24523
540-586-8911
10 AM-5:30 PM, Saturday, 9 October 2010
The purpose of this meeting is for members of Franklin families, that have been in Virginia in any time period, to come together to learn about the genealogy of their Franklin family and to share family genealogical information. The first Franklin Union I was on 10 November 2007 at the Forest Library in Forest, Virginia. About 30 Franklin family members attended and the enthusiasm was high. The second Franklin Union II was on 1 November 2008 at the Roanoke Public Library in Roanoke, Virginia. About 29 Franklin family members attended. Franklin Union III.
There are many unrelated Franklin families that have been in Virginia from colonial days to the present .Collecting data on all Franklin families helps to gain knowledge about which Franklins are related. L. David Roper, a retired physics professor at Virginia Tech, has been collecting data for all Franklin families for ~50 years, since his mother is a Franklin whose ancestors came from Amherst County. He regularly helps other Franklin family members learn more about their Franklin ancestry and cousins.
If you have genealogical data about your Franklin family, please bring it to share with others.
The organizers of this meeting are Teresa Ann Franklin Shiflett of Stuarts Draft, Virginia and L. David Roper of Blacksburg, Virginia. For more information contact Teresa (terconus@ntelos.net). It is being held in Bedford, Virginia because there is a high density of Franklins in the several counties surrounding Bedford. The meeting is called a “Franklin Union” because most people there may have never met each other and may not be related to each other.
Please contact David Roper (roperld@vt.edu) if you plan to be at the meeting. It would be helpful if you would send genealogical data for your Franklin family to him several weeks before the meeting, so that he can incorporate your Franklin family's data in the presentation.
There is a Franklin male-lines Y-chromosome project to help determine which males with surname Franklin are related to each other. The web page for the project is http://www.roperld.com/FranklinGenetics.htm.
There is a fund for the Franklin male-lines Y-chromosome project that anyone can contribute to at http://www.familytreedna.com/contribution.html. One just has to type in the Franklin name on the Surname Project line. This fund helps pay for Franklin Y-chromosome tests for those who cannot afford to pay for it.