CRAIG KILBY PROFESSIONAL GENEALOGICAL RESEARCH SERVICES
Craig M. Kilby is a professional genealogist based in Virginia's Northern Neck. He has over thirty years of experience in genealogical and historic research.
To discuss your genealogical research needs with Craig, please email him at persisto1@gmail.com or call him at 804-462-7714
Craig will be happy to review your genealogical research needs and provide you with a price quote that you will undoubtedly find to be most reasonable.
Like most of his clients, Kilby is not a Virginia native, but has deep Virginia roots. His paternal line is from Culpeper County, and from there extending back to the earliest days of Virginia's history, and includes both English and Germanna Colonists. He was born near St. Louis, Missouri. He received his Bachelor of Science in Public Administration from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 1981. He owned a real estate appraisal firm for eight years (1985-1993), served three terms in the Missouri House of Representatives (1987-1993), and worked for four years for a commercial real estate firm in St. Louis (1994-1997). In addition, he has managed two congressional campaigns.
Craig moved to Virginia in 1997, first to Richmond where he worked on several real estate ventures, and finally to Lancaster County in Virginia's Northern Neck in 2005 where he took up genealogical research as a full time profession. He is a 2003 graduate of the National Genealogical Society's American Genealogy, with a course grade of "A".
Craig's professional background in real estate and legislation brings Kilby some unique abilities and insights into the field of genealogy through land, tax and probate records, and an understanding of law and the history of law as it relates to land, property ownership and inheritance in both the colonial and post-colonial eras.
The careful use of deeds, tax lists, slave ownership and chancery suits are vital components to his research methodology, which are very often underutilized by many researchers, amateurs and professionals alike. Some of Kilby's clients are law firms and surveying companies who are involved in resolving disputes of land boundaries, and are in need of professional research to trace both the chain of title but also the land descriptions.
Though Craig's client base is primarily focused on the Northern Neck of Virginia, client work often expands into other Virginia Counties, other states, and even other countries. He has done client research in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, Maine, and Massachussetts. Research in foreign countries has been conducted in England and Germany.
The six local counties that Craig works in extensively are Lancaster, Northumberland, Richmond, Westmoreland, Middlesex and Essex. In addition to the Circuit Clerk's offices in those counties, local repositories he uses include the Mary Ball Washington Museum & Library, the Northern Neck Historical Society and the Northumberland Historical Society. Client work outside of this area is primarily conducted at the Library of Virginia and the Virginia Historical Society in Richmond, and the Earl Swem Library at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg.
A good deal of his client base also centers around Culpeper, Madison and Rappahannock Counties.
Published Material:
"John Fontaine and the First Germanna Colony" in Three Parts, published as a Premium Content article on The Memorial Foundation of the Germanna Colonies of Virginia web site, May 2009.
"The Avary Family of Amelia County, Virginia, With Notes on Their Descendants." The Southside Virginian, A Journal of Genealogy and History. Vol. XIV, Nos. 1-4 (1996); Vol. XV, Nos. 1-4 (1997).
"A Tree Falls at Litwalton," The Northern Neck of Virginia Historical Magazine, Vol. 58, (Montross, Virginia: The Northern Neck of Virginia Historical Society, 2008). A history of a house, a village and the families who lived there from 1771 to the present.
Genealogical Presentations:
"Lancaster County Estate Records 1835-1865 Database Project."
"Germanna Families and Their English Neighbors", Memorial Foundation of the Germanna Colonies, Annual Conference and Reunion, Germanna Community College, Locust Grove, Virginia, July 2004.
"The Cornish Ancestry of the Avary Family of the South: From Cornwall, England to Virginia and Beyond", Avary Family Reunion, Flat Rock, North Carolina, October 2002.
"Beginners' Genealogy Workshop", Bank of Lancaster Golden Advantage Club, June 2007, Kilmarnock, Virginia and Warsaw, Virginia.
Genealogical Memberships:
The Memorial Foundation of the Germanna Colonies of Virginia, Locust Grove, Virginia
Mary Ball Washington Museum & Library, Lancaster, Virginia
Includes Membership in and subscription to:
Ancestry.com
Friends of the Library of Virginia
Virginia Genealogical Society, Richmond, Virginia
Virginia Historical Society, Richmond, Virginia
William & Mary Quarterly, College of William & Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia
The Northern Neck of Virginia Historical Society, Montross, Virginia,
Secretary 2009-2011
The Northumberland County Historical Society, Heathsville, Virgina
Sons of the American Revolution, Richard Henry Lee Chapter (Lancaster County, Virginia)
Avary Family of the South Association, Chapel Hill, North Carolina