The purpose of these meetings 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.
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.
Previous Franklins in Virginia Unions:
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.
Several Y-chromosome test kits will be at the Franklin Union III meeting, in case a male with surname Franklin at the meeting wishes to join the project.
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.