Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Use Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Preferred Citation

Katherine Gentry Bushman Papers, 1961-1997. Accession 35743, Personal papers collection, The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.

Acquisition Information

Gift of William Bushman, Staunton, Virginia, 10 March 1998.

Biographical/Historical Information

Katherine Gentry Bushman was born in Kansas City, Missouri on 1 April 1919. She married William Bushman on 30 August 1947 in Jefferson City, Missouri. They moved to Staunton, Virginia, in 1962. She was a professional genealogist, author, and local historian, as well as a charter member of the Augusta County Historical Society, one of its past presidents, and a former editor of its publication. She was also past regent of the Thomas Hughart Chapter of the Virginia Daughters of the American Revolution. She died in Staunton on 9 December 1997.

Scope and Content Information

Genealogical research files of Katherine G. Bushman, including family research files, subject files, compilations, and oversize genealogical charts and maps. The majority of the collection are family research files containing correspondence with clients for whom Bushman did research, as well as genealogical notes abstracted from court records, including deed books, order books, will books, and marriage records. Patriotic organization applications, family group sheets, extracts from published sources, Bible records, census records, and genealogical charts also appear in these files. There is a substantial amount of information on the Alexander, Bell, Bushman, Craig, Curry, Davis, Fauber, Fulkerson, Greaver, Hogshead, Kinkead, McCutchan, Polk, Rankin, Robertson, Sheets, Steele, Tate, and Wilson families. Families researched are from the Shenandoah Valley region of Virginia, including Augusta, Bath, Botetourt, Rockbridge, Rockingham, and Shenandoah Counties, as well as the cities of Harrisonburg, Lexington, Staunton, and Waynesboro. There is a surname card index to these materials filed at the end of the series.

The subject files document Bushman's interests in genealogy and local history. There is information on her involvement in the Augusta County Historical Society, including her work as editor of its publication, as well her membership in the Daughters of the American Revolution. There are also transcripts of court records, correspondence, information on old homes, towns, and villages of Augusta County, tombstone inscriptions, extracts from published sources, and other historical information.

The compilations are printed sources that are both published and unpublished. They include family and local histories, as well as abstracts and indexes to court records, church records, and military records. These were compiled by Bushman and others.

Organization

Organized into four series: I. Family Research Files. II. Subject Files. III. Compilations. IV. Oversize Genealogical Charts and Maps.