Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Use Restrictions

Patrons are to use microfilm or digital images with searchable transcription available through the Library of Virginia's Virginia Unntold: the African American Narrative website.

Preferred Citation

Smyth County (Va.) Register of Colored Persons of Smyth County, State of Virginia, cohabiting together as Husband and Wife on 27th February 1866. Local Government Records Collection, Smyth County Court Records. The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia 23219.

Acquisition Information

This item came to the Library of Virginia in a transfer of court papers from Smyth County under the accession number 44908.

The microfilm was generated by the Genealogical Society of Utah while filming in the Smyth County Circuit Court clerk's office.

Digital images were created by the Library of Virginia's Photographic and Digital Imaging Services. Photolab numbers 10_1178_01-03.tif.

Historical Information

Smyth County was named for Alexander Smyth, a congressman from Virginia in 1832 when the county was formed from Washington and Wythe counties.

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

Smyth County (Va.) Register of Colored Persons of Smyth County, State of Virginia, cohabiting together as Husband and Wife on 27th February 1866. Also commonly called Augusta County (Va.) Cohabitation Register. This register records 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. Of note is the wide range of localities reported as the former slaves' places of birth.

The microfilm copy is found at the end of the Smyth Co. (Va.) Marriage Register A, 1832-1855, on pages 50-55 of Smyth County (Va.) Reel 15. The names are included in the index at the front of the marriage register following each alphabetical section of names in a separate section labeled Colored.

Related Material

Additional Smyth 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."

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

Index Terms

Corporate Names:

• Smyth County (Va.). Circuit Court.

Subjects:

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

Geographical Names:

• Smyth County (Va.). -- History -- 19th century.

Genre and Form Terms:

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

Added Entry - Corporate Name:

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

Adjunct Descriptive Data