Introduction
This online manuscript is only just beginning (August 2023), but it’s been a good fifteen years or so in the making. It is a warehouse for research into our Flanagan family – both ancestors and descendants. Dr Edward Latané Flanagan’s (1882-1965) research papers are housed at the Virginia Museum of History and Culture, and the purpose of this book is to add new information and correct old errors based on research and discoveries made since 1964, and to carry Dr Flanagan’s work forward.
In his papers about the Flanagan family, Dr Flanagan wrote a preface, not long before his death, a portion of which follows:
“The purpose of this compilation of Flanagan-Flannagan relatives and connections is to bring together as many families as possible with the hope that some interested researcher will add to this material and thereby expand the history . . .
This has been a venture of great pleasure to me. I regret the brevity and incompleteness but time moves on, and the shadows are lengthening. It is my hope that others will become interested and enlarge upon this effort and some day publish a book for more permanent record.” — Edward Latane Flanagan, M.D., Richmond, Virginia 1964
Dr. Flanagan, you are not forgotten. You are thought of frequently and with high regard, by many Flanagan descendants. We hope this electronic version of the book you hoped for makes you proud.
With the advent of the Internet and online family trees, old errors and assumptions about the early Flanagan family have perpetuated, multiplying exponentially.
This book revisits Dr Flanagan’s findings to expound upon them and correct the errors and inconsistencies he knew existed but didn’t have time to examine more closely because, as he said, “the shadows are lengthening.”
The ultimate goal is to add more colonial America Flanagan families to the encyclopedia. There were colonial Flanagans in the Carolinas, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and more. Collaboration is key, and contributions from researchers for those old Flanagan families is highly welcome.
The information on this website is intended to provide information about the Flanagan family in Virginia and beyond, and it will incorporate newly discovered information as it’s discovered and is intended to be dynamic – meaning, it will be revised and updated as new leads and information come to light. For this reason alone, it’s best not to copy and paste information from this website into another website or an ancestor page on ancestry.com, familysearch.org, wikitree.com, myheritage.com, geneanet.com, and the like. Instead, please consider simply adding a link on one of those websites to this website.
Whenever possible, hyperlinks to cited documents are provided, so that you can view the documents yourself. Clicking on the links will open them in a new window; this way you can easily return to the book. I have done my best to provide links that are free; in cases where a subscription is required, I have noted them as such with “$” following the link. When linking to records on familysearch.org, you may need to log in to your account; if you don’t already have an account, you can set one up for free.
This book is a collaborative effort. Your contributions, comments, feedback and corrections are welcome.
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