The Mathews County Historical Society is engaged in an ongoing project to record and document the stories that local residents have to tell.

The purpose of the project, said Forrest Morgan of MCHS, is to capture aspects of Mathews history that otherwise would be lost. To further the effort, a Festival of Oral History and Folklore is being planned for late October.

The project began several months ago, said Morgan. With a grant from the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, the historical society hired University of Florida graduate student and professional oral historian Jessica Taylor to conduct 25 interviews of local people. The participants were selected from a list of names suggested by county residents, and matching funds for the grant were provided by the county as directed by the board of supervisors.

Those interviews have now been completed, said Morgan, and they’re in the process of being transcribed.

Once the transcripts have been completed and the people intervie...