About the Author

After earning her doctorate in cinema studies at the University of Southern California, Joanne Yeck taught and wrote about film history for many years. While homeschooling her daughter, Joanne published several articles about the family's particular style of interest-driven education. Since 1995, her fascination with Virginia history has become a full-time occupation. Years of research exploring her mother's deep Virginia roots resulted in three volumes about the people and places of Buckingham County, including a biography of President Thomas Jefferson's only brother, Randolph, whose plantation, Snowden, was located in northern Buckingham at the Horseshoe Bend of the James River. In 2010, she was awarded a Jefferson Fellowship at the International Center for Jefferson Studies which supported her research for The Jefferson Brothers (2012) as well as her current book, Peter Field Jefferson: Dark Prince of Scottsville & Lost Jeffersons. She writes a monthly column for the Buckingham Beacon and, since 2012, her blog, Slate River Ramblings, has attracted a growing community of genealogists and history buffs interested in Buckingham County and its environs. When not exploring the back roads of Virginia, she lives in Kettering, Ohio. Visit her online at joannelyeck.com and slateriverramblings.com.