The Library of Virginia houses an extensive collection of vital records, including birth and death records, 1853-1896, and marriage records, 1853-1935. Genealogists and family historians…
Paige NealMay 24, 2021
Every year, as the air turns cold and memories of Thanksgiving turkey fade away, children begin the age-old tradition of penning a letter to Santa…
Vince BrooksDecember 23, 2020
“Why should Pennsylvania, founded by the English, become a colony of aliens who will shortly be so numerous as to Germanize us instead of Anglify…
Vince BrooksNovember 18, 2020
Virginia’s marriage license requirements recently made the national news, and the state’s complicated history with racial classification is part of that conversation. Various records held…
Vince BrooksSeptember 16, 2019
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
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
Before the Commonwealth of Virginia began officially recording vital statistics in 1853, many people recorded the births, deaths, and marriages in their families in the…
Tricia NoelApril 15, 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 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
The Library of Virginia is pleased to announce the addition of Scott County and Washington County to the cohabitation register digitization project. This project, via the Virginia…
Sarah NerneyJune 7, 2013
The Library of Virginia is pleased to announce the addition of Surry County to the cohabitation register digitization project. This project, via the Virginia Memory website, aims to…
Sarah NerneyJuly 18, 2012
The Library of Virginia is pleased to announce the addition of records from Fluvanna, Goochland, and Montgomery Counties to the cohabitation register digitization project. This project,…
Sarah NerneyDecember 9, 2011
Guest contributor Tricia Noel joins us to share an interesting discovery left by an anonymous artist on some New Kent County church records. Although they…
Guest ContributorSeptember 7, 2011
Death records provide familial information to genealogists, statistical information for researchers, and an occasional chuckle for archivists. My morbid fascination with death registers paid off…
Kelly Gilbert SizemoreJune 22, 2011
