The Gwinn Papers Archive: Stories and Documents From Our Ancestors

This site exists to provide access to the “Gwinn Papers” and to preserve the family history of the descendants of Laban Gwinn. For many years Nelson Gwinn cared for these papers and later he passed them to his grandchildren.

All of these stewards had hopes of finding a way to share these papers and to deepen the understanding of our family’s roots on the shores of the New River in West Virginia. These papers – along with the rich but fading oral tradition – provide a glimpse into the lives of our ancestors. These papers were collected in an old trunk. Some have fared well. Others are beyond recovery.

Now, after one prior short lived attempt, we are harnessing the power of modern AI to bring these to light. Machine transcription of these difficult to read letters and the compute power was simply not sufficient previously.

Goal #1: Get these images online with an index and a transcriptions of the many documents.

What happens after this… that’s up to all of us. We all have the stories we’ve heard from our grandparents, aunts and uncles. We can choose to add to our collective history or to let it pass away with time. If you choose to participate by sharing the stories you know, you can be a contributor to the story.

There are a number of treasures in this archive among many many mondain records (such as promissory notes and ledgers), but even these give a glimpse into the day to day life and struggles of the men and women who came before us.

Whether you are one of the innumerable descendants of Laban Gwinn or not, we hope that you enjoy the archive and are enriched by it.

If you have documents you would like to contribute to the archive, please reach out. If you have stories – parts or pieces of the fading oral tradition – that you would like to share, please reach out. Help to strengthen the history we share – family or not.