The Virginia Museum of History & Culture (VMHC) and the Library of Virginia are cooperating to provide greater access to African American history and genealogy…
Greg CrawfordFebruary 21, 2019
The Virginia Newspaper Project loves promoting the Virginia Chronicle newspaper database, but if you need to expand your research from Virginia to other U.S. states,…
Errol SomayFebruary 22, 2017
Last summer, the Westmoreland County Circuit Court Clerk Gwynne Chatham contacted the Library of Virginia concerning old marriage records that staff discovered in her office.…
Greg CrawfordJanuary 4, 2017
A single extant issue of the Reformer, an African American newspaper published in Richmond from 1895-1931, was recently added to Virginia Chronicle, the Library’s free and searchable…
Kelley EwingMay 17, 2016
In 1820, Rachel Findley won freedom for herself and more than 35 of her descendants in a Powhatan County court in a law suit dating…
Greg CrawfordFebruary 3, 2016
This is the first in a series of blog posts on the record types found in the forthcoming Library of Virginia research database: Virginia Untold: The…
Chris SmithJanuary 6, 2016
Cohabitation registers are among the most important genealogical resources for African-Americans attempting to connect their family lines back through the murky past to their enslaved…
Sarah NerneyJuly 29, 2015
The conservation of the original pages of the Henry County Cohabitation Register has recently been completed. Previously, only a poorly and confusingly microfilmed version of this…
Sarah NerneyFebruary 25, 2015
The varied experience of the African American residents of Montgomery County, Virginia, reveals itself in many documentary sources, but perhaps none as unexpected to some…
Sarah NerneyJuly 2, 2014
The Library of Virginia has completed the digitization and transcription of the last of the cohabitation registers in its possession, the Henry County Cohabitation Register, 1866.…
Sonya ColemanFebruary 26, 2014
Additional Prince Edward County chancery causes are now available on the Chancery Records Index. These additions span the years 1754 through 1883. Combined with the previously…
Dale DulaneyAugust 8, 2011