1. Books – About St. George’s
A. Rev. Philip Slaughter History of St. George’s Parish in the County of Spotsylvania (1890) Slaughter was a lawyer, a builder of churches and a publications editor.
B. Carrol Quenzel History of St. George’s (1951). Quenzel was the librarian at then Mary Washington College as well as serving St. George’s on the Vestry and helping to write the newsletter.
C. Michael Aubrecht Historic Churches of Fredericksburg: Houses of the Holy (2008). This was a combined book of several churches in Fredericksburg during the Civil War. Aubrecht is primarily a writer around the diverse subjects of baseball and the Civil War.
D. Bishop Williams Meade Old churches, ministers and families of Virginia (1861). Meade was the 3rd Bishop of the Diocese of Virginia from 1829-1861. The book was in 2 volumes. Article LIII in Volume 2 has a chapter on St. George’s story. Volume 1 is here
The book is published on our sister graveyard site and spotilights the Cemetery guild’s effort to cleanup and preserve the graveyard.
2. Books – About Fredericksburg with information about St. George’s
A. Paula Felder. Felder is probably the leading authority on the 18th century in Fredericksburg
Fielding Lewis and the Washington Family (1998)
Forgotten Companions, The First Settlers of Spotsylvania County and Fredericksburgh Town (2000). One of the finest books on Colonial America.
George Washington’s Fredericksburg (2011)
B. Frank O’Reilly The Fredericksburg Campaign: Winter War on the Rappahannock (2006)
Probably the definitive book on the military campaign of the Battle of Fredericksburg as told by a Park Ranger.
C. George Rabble Fredericksburg! Fredericksburg! (2002)
Provides more of the behind the scenes fabric of the battle.
D. Sylvanus J. Quinn History of Fredericksburg (1908). Quinn compiled this volume in 1908 as requested by the Council. He held many positions in Fredericksburg, including superintendent of school and the water works. He was a captain in the Civil War in the 13th Mississippi.
E. John T. Goolrick Historic Fredericksburg: The Story of an Old Town (1922). Goolrick was a veteran of the Civil War and served as Judge of the Corporation Court in Fredericksburg.
F. Alvin T. Embrey History of Fredericksburg. Embrey was an Judge who wrote this history in the 1930’s. He is noted for his index of deeds in Fredericksburg from 1727-1920
3. Libraries/Archives
A. Rappahannock Regional library
The Virginiana room has books on Fredericksburg and Virginia. The blessing is they can’t be checked out so they are almost always available. The clip file begun by our own Barbara Willis is a goldmine of information about Fredericksburg and St. George’s. There are also many historical newspapers viewable by microfilm.
Key records involving public records including marriages, land transactions, wills, and other court records
C. Central Rappahannock Heritage Center
All of our history related items are here. Trip Wiggins is the archivist for the church and his collection that he documented is the basis of what is there. We need to take his collection and relate to the internal links of the Heritage Center to make them easier to find
Trip Wiggins index of the records when they were at St. George’s is here.
The search engine at the Heritage Center, PastPerfect, takes some effort to get to know.
Here is an example of a keyword search for St. George’s.
Here is an example of a keyword search for an individual, in this case Basil Gordon.
One of the oldest libraries in Virginia, founded in 1823. Since 1997, the library’s headquarter 800 East Broad Street in Richmond, “The Library houses the most comprehensive collection of materials on Virginia government, history, and culture available anywhere.”
Search on St. George’s Episcopal, Fredericksburg
4. Websites/Articles
A. Fredericksburg Research Resources
Site begun and maintained by Gary Stanton, retired from the University of Mary Washington Historical Preservation Department.
Not to be missed on that site is one search that covers all of Fredericksburg historical newspapers. The basis of this index is Robert Hodge’s indexing of newspapers (as well as birth and death records, graveyards). Hodge focused on the genealogist, not specifically businesses such as St. George’s. However looking under “church”, “Episcopal”, “St. Georges” will yield results.
Site maintained by John Hennessey chief historian of the National Park Service in Fredericksburg. St. George’s is mentioned in a number of articles. John has been a contributor to our own history website. The focus on this site is Civil War
Sister site to “Mysteries”
All about our graveyard
E. Cemeteries of Fredericksburg- Rootsweb
F. USGW archives on our graveyard
G. “Find a Grave” with our graveyard
H. Fredericksburg Cemetery records
J. Oral history project at library
M. Washington Heritage Museums
This organization includes the Mary Washington House, St. James House, Hugh Mercer Apothecary Shop and the Rising Sun Tavern. Charles Washington was on our Vestry. Hugh Mercer is in the colonial Vestry minutes though his son was much more active here. Mary Washington would have attended St. George’s.