Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Use Restrictions

Patrons are to use inkjet copies (barcode 0007432758) or digital images with searchable transcription available through the Library of Virginia's Virginia Unntold: the African American Narrative website.

Preferred Citation

Augusta County (Va.) Register of Colored Persons cohabiting together as Husband and Wife, 27th February 1866. Local government records collection, Augusta County Court Records. The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Va. 23219.

Acquisition Information

This item came to the Library of Virginia in a transfer of court papers from Augusta County under the accession numbers 43239 and 43324. These accessions are filed together as the complete cohabitiation register.

Accession 36065 originally filed in Private Papers was combined with this collection. It consists of 7 leaves of photocopies and is a copy of accession 43239.

This item was microfilmed by the Library of Virginia's Imaging Services Division. The microfilm consists of a partial copy of the Augusta cohabitation register (accession 43324).

Digital images were created by the Library of Virginia's Photographic and Digital Imaging Services. Photolab numbers 07_1202_01-07.tif (accession 43239) and 08_0613_01-21.tif (accession 43324).

Historical Information

Augusta County was formed from Orange in 1738 and its first government established in 1745.

The Virginia legislature passed an act on 27 February 1866 to legalize the marriages of former slaves who had been cohabiting as of that date. See Virginia Acts of Assembly, 1866-1867, Chapter 18, An act to amend and re-enact the 14th section of chapter 108 of the Code of Virginia for 1860, in regard to registers of marriage; and to legalize the marriages of colored persons now cohabiting as husband and wife.

The federal Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands directed the Assistant Superintendents of the states to order the county clerks to make a registry of such cohabiting couples. See Circular No. 11, dated 19 March 1866, in Orders, Circulars, Circular Letters, and Letters of Instruction, vol. 2 (1866). Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, Records of the Assistant Commissioner for the State of Virginia, 1865-1869. Miscellaneous reel 3880, Library of Virginia. National Archives microfilm M1048 (reel 41), Record Group 105.

Scope and Content

Augusta County (Va.) Register of Colored Persons of Lunenburg County, State of Virginia, cohabiting together as Husband and Wife on 27th February 1866. This register records on twenty one pages the name of the husband, his age, place of birth, residence, occupation, last owner, last owner's residence, name of the wife, her age, place of birth, residence, last owner, last owner's residence, name of children with the ages of each, and the date of commencement of cohabitation.

Related Material

Additional Augusta County Marriage Records and Vital Statistics can be found on microfilm at the Library of Virginia. Consult "A Guide to Virginia County and City Records on Microfilm" found on the Library of Virginia web site.

Additional cohabitation registers are available digitially with searchable transcriptions through the Library of Virginia's Virginia Unntold: the African American Narrative website.

Index Terms

Corporate Names:

• Augusta County (Va.). Circuit Court.

Subjects:

• African Americans--Employment--Virginia--Augusta County.
• African Americans--Virginia--Augusta County.
• Freedmen--Virginia--Augusta County.
• Slaveholders--Virginia--Augusta County.

Geographical Names:

• Augusta County (Va.)--History--19th Century.

Genre and Form Terms:

• Local government records--Virginia--Augusta County.
• Marriage records--Virginia--Augusta County.
• Marriage registers--Virginia--Augusta County.

Added Entry - Corporate Name:

• United States. Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands.

Adjunct Descriptive Data