ABSTRACT
Personal experiences, and where those experiences take place, can have a lasting impact on one's understanding of history and the best way to study it. Historians tell stories to explain events and to shed light on the causes and consequences of actions. This chapter highlights stories that may seem unrelated, but they all offer insight into the mind of a researcher. As the story of Sinbad suggests, it is an effective technique for getting into the mind of someone interested in history and research. Many people have a casual interest in their local history and are proud of any distinguishing features it may have, but they are otherwise clueless about the details of this history and unaware of what they might do about it. Professional historical and genealogical research into local history covering the period prior to 1865 has long been a challenge in central Virginia.
