Bill Bynum – The UncommonWealth

Archives

Horse Thief!

According to a mysterious document in the Library’s holdings, an interstate crime ring consisting mostly of Virginians operated from Maryland to South Carolina in the…

Bill BynumJuly 3, 2023

Archives Newspapers

Wearing of the Green

In the late 1840s, a flood of Irish refugees fleeing the Great Famine filled America’s cities. While most of these immigrants went to the Northeast,…

Bill BynumMarch 16, 2022

Archives

Random Reference: Riot in the Church!

Manakin Town, in present-day Powhatan County, was a unique community made up of Huguenot (French Protestant) refugees who settled there in 1700-1701. Although free from…

Bill BynumSeptember 15, 2021

Archives

Finding Family in Transcribe

This is an entry in our “Random Reference” series, which features interesting discoveries made and reference questions answered by our Archives & Library Reference Services…

Bill BynumJuly 6, 2020

Archives

Breaking Up Is Hard to Do: Legislative Petitions for Divorce

In this age of no-fault divorce, it is hard to imagine that from 1776 to 1826 the only means of divorce in Virginia was by…

Bill BynumAugust 29, 2018

Archives

A Wedding, a Death, and a Pension: Charles and Sarah Butler’s Story

Portsmouth, Virginia, occupied by the Union army, was the scene of a wedding in November 1863. The happy couple was Charles “Charley” Butler, a private…

Bill BynumJune 3, 2015

Archives Manuscripts & Special Collections

The Asylum Poisonings: Death, Politics, and “Low Cussedness” in Staunton

In 1883, the year when Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson solved the case of the Speckled Band, an equally baffling real-life killing drew another noted…

Bill BynumNovember 19, 2014