Bring the Grandparents: Woodlawn Turns Family History Into a Sunday Adventure
Descendant stories, family-history quilts, a Smithsonian-led genealogy session and a take-home family tree are included in the $30-per-family program.
ALEXANDRIA, VA — A single old record can open a door to an entire family story.
On Grandparents Day, Woodlawn & Pope-Leighey House is inviting families to walk through that door together.
Generations at Woodlawn runs from noon to 4 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 13, at the historic site, 9000 Richmond Highway. Admission is $30 per family.
The afternoon combines descendant voices, textile art, practical genealogy help and activities children can carry home. Families can make their own family trees, explore the grounds and hear how the lives of people who lived and worked at Woodlawn remain connected across generations.
“Bring your family, share your stories, and start tracing your roots,” organizers say.
Quilts That Hold Family History
At 12:30 p.m., Sheryl Sims will explain how research into her own family history inspired her raw-edge appliqué quilts.
Her connections through the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Alexandria Quaker Meeting revealed unexpected ties to several families who lived and worked at Woodlawn.
At 1:15 p.m., architectural historian and former Woodlawn director Susan Hellman will share her family history and discuss a signature Quaker quilt she recently donated to the site.
The quilt is on display in Friends Gather Here: A Legacy of Two Communities at Woodlawn.
A Second Look at One Remarkable Record
The day’s longest session begins at 2:30 p.m.
Edwina Parks and Lisa Crawley, genealogy reference assistants at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture’s Robert F. Smith Explore Your Family History Center, will present “Taking a Second Look at the Freedman’s Bank Records.”
They will follow a record that reveals the story of a formerly enslaved spinner and three generations of her family in eastern North Carolina after the Civil War. The researchers will then demonstrate “reverse genealogy,” tracing the family’s story forward into the 21st century.
That is the larger invitation behind Sunday’s program: not simply to look backward, but to see how one name, quilt or document can connect people still living today.
What Families Need to Know
Generations at Woodlawn takes place from noon to 4 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 13. Woodlawn & Pope-Leighey House is located at 9000 Richmond Highway in the Mount Vernon area.
Admission is $30 per family. Advance registration is available through the official event page. The site can be reached at 703-780-4000 with questions.
