The gathering was held in Suffolk, Virginia, at the Hilton Garden Inn from May 10 to 13, 2012. Cousins joined us from all over the United States. Several attendees researched family history at the new Isle of Wight Courthouse in Smithfield. On Friday we gathered for a picnic dinner at Squire Hall, the farm of member Nancy Squire. Caryn Johnson displayed a large Bridger descendant chart that she created. Our Saturday evening banquet and annual meeting were held at the host hotel. Dr. Carl Lounsbury, senior architectural historian from the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, spoke about churches and homes of old Virginia.
Alain Outlaw reported that during the dig at Whitemarsh in the spring of 2011 he found two graves containing remains of males buried in the early 1700s. He immediately knew they were males because he found three buttons in each grave at the waist line, which were the trouser buttons. Alain knew that neither grave was Joseph Bridger’s as none of the bones were missing in the two graves. Alain was not able to remove any remains because the bones were “mushy,” as the graves were in a low area of the farm.
