Genealogy is everywhere today; online, on our screens, and through organizations, conferences, and communities across the country. But long before the digital age, genealogy was just as powerful in the 18th century. While we often think of early Americans as the subjects of genealogical research, they were active participants in a practice that shaped their world. Family histories were deeply meaningful and were woven into the very fabric of society through law, politics, and religion.

Join us for an engaging conversation about lineage, identity, and the enduring power of connection with Karin Wulf.

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Girl Scouts are invited to earn a Wilton House Museum badge while exploring the past at Wilton through a special genealogy workshop created just for them. This workshop features a guided tour of the 1753 Wilton House, which explores the paradox of hardship amidst elegance, and how the past continues to shape life in America today. Participants will also receive an introduction to genealogy and have a conversation about the importance of tracing family history. The workshop will demonstrate how to properly research and analyze records, teach specific organization techniques, and critical thinking skills. Scouts will then get creative by crafting their own personal family history book to begin preserving and documenting their family stories.

Tickets: $5/registered Girl Scout

Camp Wilton is a free, family friendly open house that brings Revolutionary War and colonial history to life through hands-on, interactive experiences for all ages. Inspired by the two week encampment of the Marquis de Lafayette and Continental forces at Wilton in May 1781. The event highlights the 1753 house and original site’s role as a gathering place for military and Virginia leaders during the Revolution.

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Registration is free but recommended!

This program follows historian, Richard Bell as he traces the global ripple effects of the American Revolution through the lives it disrupted, reshaped, and destroyed. Participants will meet a Native matriarch striving to preserve a fragile alliance, a Prussian officer forging a new identity abroad, and a Boston schoolteacher cast far from home. Bell reveals how the war sparked a transoceanic refugee crisis, fueled antislavery movements, and inspired uprisings from Ireland to India. Rather than a neat founding moment, the Revolution emerges as a complex, high-stakes conflict spanning continents and oceans, driven by commerce, diplomacy, propaganda, and chance. This fresh perspective reimagines the Revolution as a deeply interconnected global event with lasting relevance today.