William Byrd Plantation with Opa & Oma

In December, Trek's parents came to visit for a couple of days.  The kids were SO excited to spend a little time with Opa & Oma since we only see them once every year or two.  The first day they were here we took them to the William Byrd plantation about an hour & a half from our house.  Trek & his dad are super into genealogy & William Byrd is their great-great-great-lots of great's grandfather.

Their great-great-great-lots of great's grandfather whose last name was Richard Murphy was kidnapped when he was 7 years old.  He was sold as an indentured servant & was shipped to the US.  He served many many years on the William Byrd plantation & fell in love with William Byrd's daughter Mary Elizabeth Byrd.  They ran away & got married (she was disowned from the Byrd estate) & they then moved to Surry, VA (about 30 minutes from where we live right now.)

Anyway, Trek's dad was SO excited to see this plantation with us.  It was really beautiful.

Inside the house you can see a picture of William Byrd.

This is the tombstone of William Byrd's son & Mary Elizabeth Byrd's brother.  He became the owner of the plantation when William Byrd got too old to run things & after his death.

We also walked a mile down the river to an old cemetery where the original William Byrd was buried.  We found his tomb.  It was quite exciting.

We had a blast exploring the area.  We went to the county hall of records to see what else we could learn about what happened to the family & literally, Mary Elizabeth Byrd was mentioned here & there in journals & history books, but she was erased from all records after a certain year (the year she married Richard Murphy).  It was crazy.  It was a really interesting trip & we were happy to learn a little more family history & see the actual places where our ancestors lived in the late 1600's.

It was great having Opa & Oma here.  Oma baked all day with the kiddos & we went caroling as a family.  We went out to lunch & dinner while they were here & just had a blast together.  I wish we lived closer to family so we could do things like this more often.  I miss my family so much.