robertmackayclan

Just a reminder that the annual Waterford, Va. Homes Tour & Crafts Exhibit is scheduled for this weekend, October 6-8.

Here's a direct link to their website.

http://www.waterfordva.org/

Hope to see some family members there.

I just wanted to share a little about the festival at Waterford this past weekend. It was cold but it was a very nice event.

I had a few interesting coincidences that happened to me.

First of all on Saturday I thought about touring some of the houses. I was standing on the street and turned the booklet onto a page talking about Robert Hollingsworth's house. (Robert is a descendant of Robert Mackay Sr. through dau. Hannah, if I'm talking about the right one). I happened to look up and realized that the house I was standing in front of was his. I thought about touring it but I wasn't feeling all that well that day so I didn't get to do all of the things I wanted to before the events closed down at 5 p.m.

I came back on Sunday to finish up and was walking down Second Street when I encountered a tour house. Somehow I felt I should stop here. I looked in the booklet and came on the page for "The Samuel Steer" house and looked up at the house and then at the booklet a few times. After seeing the house number I realized it was the Samuel Steer house that I stopped at. So, I decided I'd tour this one. It was interesting. The house originally belonged to a Thomas family but they didn't get to live in it very long because the Civil War had started, so they moved out. After the war, Cousin Samuel Steer and his family moved in and it stayed in that branch of the family until the 1940s. Samuel Steer was a Union sympathizer and spent some time in a Confederate prison. His daughter Sarah was one of the co-editors of "The Waterford News" which was a pro-Union newspaper during the Civil War. She later went on to found the 1st colored school in Loudoun County which is located further down Second Street.

The last concidental event was whe I was getting ready to leave I wanted to take a trip to the old Fairfax Meeting house and Burying Grounds and take a few pictures for the website. I went into the graveyard and walked around closer to the house to take a picture. I decided to walk towards the left end of the cemetery (facing the meeting house) in an effort to get a shot of the whole cemetery. I had a feeling I was going to see something there. I went in and turned around and I came across Isaac Steer's (1757-1844) grave. He is one of my direct ancestors on the Steer family. His stone is made of slate I believe and the inscription is very clear. I took a picture of it.

So, all in all I believe I had a pretty good weekend.

Some folks have said on other forums that the ancestors guide you. I don't know if anyone reading this believes this or not but I've had coincidences like these happen to me on numerous occasions.