Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Use Restrictions

Patrons are to use microfilm copy, Roanoke County (Va.) Reel 312, or digital images with searchable transcription available through the Library of Virginia's Virginia Unntold: the African American Narrative website.

Preferred Citation

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

Acquisition Information

This item came to the Library of Virginia in a transfer of court papers from Roanoke County.

Digital images were created by the Library of Virginia's Photographic and Digital Imaging Services. Photolab number 09_0943_01-08.

Historical Information

Roanoke County was formed from Botetourt County in 1838. In 1849, it was enlarged by adding a portion of what was then Montgomery County.

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

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

Related Material

Additional Roanoke 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 Unntold: the African American Narrative website.

Adjunct Descriptive Data