Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

Collection is open to research.

Use Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Preferred Citation

Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: Pauline E. Burks Family Papers, Ms92-037, Special Collections, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Va.

Acquisition Information

This collection was donated by its creator and her daughter in 1989, 1992, 1993 and 1994.

Processing Information

The P.E. Burks Family Papers were partially processed by Glen McMullen and Laura Katz Smith staff upon their reciept. Final processing took place in March and April 2008.

Biographical Information

Pauline Englehard Burks, a Richmond, Virginia resident, researched the genealogy of her husband's (Broaddus Vaughan Burks) family. In doing so, she amassed correspondence, account books, receipts, newspapers, and other documents about the Broaddus, Burks, Edmonds, Taliaferro, and Vaughan families of Amherst County, Virginia. In 1995 she published the book Roots, Shoots and Runners: Taliaferro, Broaddus, Burks, Vaughan and Allied Families As Seen in Their Letters, Bible Records and Family Papers.

Alexander Hairston Burks married Ellen T. Broaddus. In 1879, their second child, Franklin "F.T." Taliaferro Burks (1849-1921), would marry his second wife, Hortense Washington Vaughan (1867-1955), the youngest of the four children of Dr. Washington "Wash" L. Vaughan and Francis "Fannie" Shields. Her siblings included noted doctor and surgeon Dr. George Tully Vaughan; Eugene Neville Vaughan; and Matilda Corinne Vaughan Hoffman. F.T. and Hortense Burks had 4 children: Pearl Burks Rossner Burnley Miles; Frank T. Burks, Jr.; Garnett M. Burks, who married architect Lorenzo Simmons Winslow; and Broaddus Vaughan Burks. Broaddus Burks (1898-1985) married Pauline Genevieve Englehard (b. 1909) in 1931, and they had two children.

Scope and Content

The P.E. Burks Family Papers include correspondence, account books, essays, receipts, newspaper clippings, family Bibles, and plats and surveys of the Broaddus, Burks, Edmonds, Taliaferro, and Vaughan families of Amherst County, Virginia.

Papers about the families include 18th-century land and property information for Virginia and 19th-century financial papers and ledgers as well as both personal and business correspondence. Most early materials pertain to the Broaddus, Edmonds and Taliaferro families. More contemporary materials from the late 19th and 20th centuries are found in the Vaughan and Burks papers. Most of the 20th-century papers are the informal correspondence of the Broaddus and Pauline Burks family, dating from the 1930s to the 1980s.

Other materials include a set of transcriptions of record books from Amherst County, Virginia from a series called Courthouse Miniatures, and other printed materials, such as magazines and newspapers. The magazine and newspaper selection consists only of selected issues and clippings from the periodicals, but contains interesting local news and advertisements. Also of note are a few clothing catalogs, patterns, and sewing instructions from around 1900. Children's publications such as Youth's Companion and activity pages complement the Virgnia schoolteacher information found in the Burks and Vaughan family materials.

Arrangement

The Burks papers are arranged into two sections. Series I contains family papers divided by family name. Series II contains general historical and genealogical materials divided by type of material.