Records Room Road Trips: July-August 2024

Established in 1990 and jointly sponsored by the Library of Virginia and the Virginia Court Clerks Association, the Circuit Court Records Preservation Program (CCRP) is funded through proceeds of a recordation fee for land transactions conducted in the circuit court clerks’ offices. The money generated by this $3.50 fee goes into a fund that is used for a variety of internal and external projects related to conservation, preservation, and access. These activities require the attention of several full-time local records archivists, including two consulting archivists who travel the Commonwealth.

July and August CCRP program travel took me to Virginia’s beautiful mountains through the Shenandoah Valley, as well as a return to Northern Virginia. First stop, to the records room of Shenandoah County Circuit Court Clerk Karla Ortts in Woodstock, Virginia. Folks who enjoy art and architecture as well as folklore would appreciate the images of the town’s symbolic “Swiss Guard” figure, which can be found in decorations throughout the historic downtown area. Circuit court records there date from the Revolutionary era, with some volumes in good condition for their age, and others suffering from a variety of conservation issues. Order Book 1784-1786 is a good example of pages that are water-damaged, brittle, and torn, in addition to having been reinforced at the gutters with linen tape, which over time has contributed to the pages being prone to splitting near the gutters. This combination of damage makes it a likely candidate for encapsulation and post-binding once the pages have been cleaned, mended, and deacidified.

While examining Minute Book 1791-1796, which has several torn and chipped pages, as well as linen tape reinforcing gutters covering text, I noticed a particularly surface-soiled page, recording an Oyer and Terminer case. In this instance, “Jacob a Mulatto man slave…stands charged with feloniously, voluntarily, Maliciously burning the stables and barn” of two county residents. Fortunately it ended favorably for him:

Whereupon Sundry witnesses were Sworn and Examined and the said Jacob heard in his defence. On Consideration whereof the Court are of Opinion that the said Jacob is not Guilty of the Crime aforesaid and that he is discharged.

The next day I drove south on Route 11 as far as Edinburg, took the scenic route through Fort Valley by way of Edinburg Gap Road/Camp Roosevelt Road/Fort Valley Road, stopping briefly to take in the beautiful view of the Shenandoah Valley near Luray on my way to the records room of Page County Circuit Court Clerk Grayson Markowitz. That records room is one of my favorites, largely due to its unique balcony, spiral staircases, and vivid green tile floors and shelving.

Many older Page County volumes have suffered water damage, with pages so warped and brittle that often they cannot merely be mended and rebound; they warrant full encapsulation. Among the volumes I examined, two convict registers were interesting because they included physical descriptions of incarcerated persons, including scars or marks. One person is described as having several notable tattoos, including  “Edith,” two hearts with initials O.L.M. (him) and E.E.A. (perhaps Edith?), “I love mother,” and the words “True” and “Love” spelled out on the fingers of each hand.

It’s easy to see why two mid-19th century Page County volumes are potential item conservation candidates: Chancery Order Book 1 1831-1859 resembles a volume from a Harry Potter film, with its red-rotted, warped, and torn cover and brittle, warped, and detached leaves, while some interior pages of Execution Book A 1831-1842, contain residue of inactive mold. Execution books do not record anyone being put to death; they record the efforts of the local sheriff to “execute,” or carry out collecting the judgment for a debt, often by confiscating property. It is not unusual to find enslaved persons among the debt collections. Some entries may also provide information not easily found elsewhere; for example, an enslaved boy was to be hired out by the sheriff to a particular individual for a specified period of time in order to pay the judgment debt of the defendant. If selected for conservation, these volumes will be disbound, with pages surface-cleaned, mended, and encapsulated in mylar sleeves, then housed in an appropriately sized post binder.

The following week I visited the records room of Clarke County Circuit Court Clerk April Wilkerson in Berryville, Virginia, with an overnight in nearby Winchester. Clarke County is fortunate in that many of the high-priority volumes housed there either have been conserved already or those that remain are in relatively fair condition. Volumes might “look old” but in fact may have strong text blocks or are record types that are not high priority candidates, such as dockets or process books. In these instances I look for other record types, such as loose records, that are in need of conservation but have some sort of discernable order (so they are not archival processing projects). These can include marriage licenses and deeds. In Clarke County, I had examined the earliest deeds in a previous visit, so this year I examined the next few drawers, 1849-1865. These were trifolded within envelopes, bundled by year. Documents found in “deeds” include varying types of property transactions: deeds of trust, bills of sale, agreements, exchanges, powers of attorney, and deeds of emancipation. Not surprisingly, there were not many deeds between 1862-1865; most folks had other business to attend to during those years!

The next day I drove to Front Royal to the records room of Warren County Circuit Court Clerk Angela Moore. For the past few grant cycles, early marriage records and land tax books have been a priority, but on this visit I also identified two personal property tax books, one from the 1830s and one from 1854. These are particularly interesting primary sources as they categorize taxable individuals by race, servitude (which may include counting women), and age, although they exclude all white women of any age. The categories differ and/or increase in detail with each volume.

I always enjoy examining marriage records that contain bonds and consents, as these are often hand-written on scrap paper or are original letters to an individual, so they provide context and substance to the formal marriage licenses. Typically these are found trifolded within the license and thus are conserved near the license with which they correspond, but some localities house them separately, as was the case here. Once conserved, these will remain their own series within the marriage records volumes.

After a week or so hiatus I hit the road northwest again, to the records room of Rappahannock County Circuit Court Clerk Kaitlin Struckmann, in Washington, Virginia. This was particularly fun because the record types were so varied. In a previous visit I had examined an extremely large USGS map, circa 1932, of what was then the “proposed” Shenandoah National Park. A few adjacent localities have similar maps. Due to the size and the medium (the map is backed with linen), it is a candidate for mending and housing loosely rolled, to be digitized in color at high resolution, with full-size and reduced-size facsimiles to be provided to the clerk as well.

And, much like a few other localities I had visited back in May, Rappahannock County also has a collection of black-and-white aerial photos, 1937-1938, post-bound in a plat book, and heavily annotated with colored writing. These are highly detailed photos that document the landscape at a specific point in time, including structures, trees, and waterways. These received heavy use over the years, and are torn and taped throughout. Although photo paper can’t be deacidified, these can be flattened and mended, with tape and adhesives removed. Of course, if these are also reformatted digitally, the clerk would like these reformatted in color.

When I had visited Page County in July, I returned to the Library of Virginia with some homework. I had identified three woodruff drawers of what appeared to be Commonwealth causes, 1840s-1880s. This was odd, because the majority of Page County Commonwealth causes had been transferred to the Library years ago. After following up with State Archivist Greg Crawford, and again with Mr. Markowitz, it was determined that these drawers should join the remainder of the collection. After my visit to Rappahannock County, I drove to Luray and spent the night so I could stop by the records room early the next morning to pack those records, and then visit Culpeper County on the way back to the Library. As a runner, I was up early to go for a beautiful sunrise run on the Luray-Hawksbill Greenway.

I have always looked forward to visiting to the records room of Culpeper County Circuit Court Clerk Carson Beard as their records date to 1749, and there are many candidates for item conservation. On this visit, I examined several deed books warranting conservation: some cellulose acetate laminated, others in general disrepair.

A few grant cycles ago, birth and death registers dating 1865-1879 had been conserved, so it was nice to see the conserved volumes at the locality before I examined the next batch dating 1880-1896. Some of these I dared not fully open, as the paper was multi-folded, brittle, dry, and virtually being smothered under copious amounts of yellowed, sticky pressure-sensitive tape. When conserved, the yellowed or browned areas where tape had been removed often remain, but flattening, mending, deacidifying, and encapsulating in Mylar brings them back to life. Digital reformatting provides even greater access.

I finished my travel for August by visiting three Northern Virginia localities consecutively: Prince William County, Fairfax County, and Loudoun County. I had already examined enough items as conservation candidates for Prince William County the previous year, but for this visit I was delivering to logistics coordinator Michael Mallon, on behalf of Circuit Court Clerk Jacqueline Smith, two bound, color print facsimiles and a USB of two volumes that had been conserved last grant cycle: Minute Book 1834-1861 and Court Record (Order Book) 1769-1771. However, it made sense to examine a few more items while I was there. High on the priority list was Deeds M 1749-1752, beautifully bound in wooden cover boards and leather embossed spine, with intricately marbled endsheets, but cellulose acetate laminated in 1938—a process which was considered state of the art at the time, but which is now known to be detrimental over time. Fortunately, the ink on the pages of this volume is not too thick or heavy, and there are very few losses; it may be a successful candidate for delamination and conservation.

Early minute books in disrepair are also candidates, and their content is particularly notable. While many localities had “Free Negro Registers” which documented free persons of color prior to emancipation, Prince William County’s has not yet been located, if it even existed (See Virginia Untold for more information on these items). Some localities recorded these registrations within volumes of other record types. In Prince William County, several names and registration numbers are listed in minute books. The corresponding order books might contain more information. Early deed books, also in varying degrees of disrepair, sometimes document manumissions of enslaved persons. Deed Book 1 1800-1802 contains at least one such emancipation, with artistic flourishes within the penmanship. I found this by referencing the index, which listed a deed of emancipation.

After leaving Manassas, I spent the night in Fairfax, thus avoiding another I-95 drive, and the next morning drove a few miles to the Fairfax County Circuit Court Historic Records Center to meet Circuit Court Clerk Christopher Falcon and his chief deputy and clerk of staff Laura Stokes. Longtime HRC archivist Georgia Brown and assistant archivist Alexandra Campbell had pulled material they wanted me to examine as item conservation grant candidates, including land tax books which have been popular for the last few grant cycles. They also steered me to a few drawers of flat-filed birth and death registers. Although flattened, they had once been multi-folded, similar to those in Culpeper County, but with less tape. Many had tears and losses, so they would benefit from conservation and reformatting. Although some of the references may seem insensitive to modern readers, they are valuable primary sources for documenting the context of a birth or death.

Next, I drove to Leesburg to spend the night and again saved travel time by being near the courthouse, which also houses the Historic Records Division. Circuit Court Clerk Gary Clemens was unavailable that day, but Historic Records Manager Eric Larson regularly is my primary point of contact when I visit to examine historic records. Dating from 1757, their records are extensive, and many volumes had been cellulose acetate laminated, so I continue to examine them when I visit. In a run of deed books that day, I particularly enjoyed coming across signatures of folks who were illiterate. Some of their “marks” were distinctive. Conversely, although I am extremely familiar with a variety of period handwriting, sometimes a person’s signature still can be a challenge to read!

This year Mr. Larson also wanted to consider what could be done for a 1937 blueprint version of a Loudoun County highway map, 3×8 square pasted onto 4×4 square particleboard. The paper map is chipping and peeling on edges and corners. This will be a conservation challenge, but there are options for removing it from the particleboard and conserving it using some painstaking measures. If selected, once conserved it would be acceptable to house it in an appropriately sized archival box in which the map can be rolled loosely. As an aside, when examining the map, I noticed a now-retired HVAC control device on the wall that looked like a NASA space control panel and had to photograph that “artifact.”

That’s it for my CCRP consulting archivist travels for the summer, although the summer temperatures seemed to drag into November…my fall travels will be reported another time!