Lost Records Localities: Counties and Cities with Missing Records

A distant cousin of mine, Gail Vass, pointed out a resource that I had never seen before. It is called the Lost Records Localities Database and it is housed at the Libray of Virginia. Per their description...

"This database consists of entries for a wide variety of court records found as part of chancery and other locality records-processing projects. The entries are for surviving records from localities, most of whose records are no longer extant. The original record is photocopied. The copies are filed together in an artificial collection—the Lost Records Localities Collection—and are readily accessed through the manuscript room at the Library of Virginia. Please check periodically as this is an ongoing project."

In short, any record that they find from a "burned" county gets added to this collection. For example, say someone bought land in Hanover County and later sold it to someone in Mecklenburg County. The purchaser in Mecklenburg may have been involved in a court case where the Hanover deed was presented and copied. That copy still exists and is therefore added to the Lost Records database. It is search-able online but the actual records have to be viewed at the Library.

In case your were wondering, the burned counties in question are:

• Albemarle
  
• Appomattox
• Buckingham
• Caroline
• Charles City
• Culpeper
  
• Dinwiddie
• Elizabeth City
• Gloucester
• Hanover
• Henrico
• Henrico / City of Richmond
• James City County / Williamsburg
• King and Queen
• King George
  
• King William
• Mathews
• Nansemond
• New Kent
• Nottoway
• Prince George
• Prince William
• Richmond City
  
• Richmond County
• Rockingham
  
• Stafford
• Warwick
  

For example, I checked for Brock documents in Hanover County and found the following:

Locality	Names	Record Type	Dates
Hanover County	King, Mary, etc. to John P. Brock	Deed	1799
Hanover County	Priddy, Robert and wife Nancy to John C. Brock	Deed	1823

I am very interested in the King-Brock deed as John P. Brock is my ancestor and his wife was rumored to be a King. This might be the proof that I need to make that connection. I plan on making a trip to the archives tomorrow so I will look up the actual document and let you know what I learn about the collection.

You can check out the online database here: Lost Records Localities Database

1850 United States Federal Census, York County, Virginia, Transcription and Last Name Index

I completed a book on the 1850 census for York County, Virginia in 2005. It is available from Lulu at the following link: http://www.lulu.com/content/156511

The book costs $11.98 plus shipping for the printed version and $6.25 for a PDF download.

Book Information:
You will receive one new, soft-bound copy of the "1850 United States Federal Census, York County, Virginia, Transcription and Last Name Index," compiled by Kevin Lett of Virginia Family Tree. This is a new edition to the market, being published for the first time in 2005. Information includes each resident’s name, age, race, sex, occupation, real estate value, place of birth (specific counties are given for Virginia births) and some possible educational, physical and marital information (not all of these items are given for each person). There were over 440 households including more than 2,275 individuals (910 white males, 915 white females, 235 free black males and 219 free black females). The book has a total of 60, 8x10 inch pages and includes a last name index and is signed by the author.

Author's background:
Kevin Lett is a graduate of the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia with a degree in the field of History and a minor degree in Art and Art History. He has conducted genealogy research for the past fourteen years, four years professionally, and is a member of the Association of Professional Genealogists and the Virginia Historical Society. He is also a volunteer county coordinator for the USGenWeb Project and spent time as a fact checker, and author, for the Library of Virginia's "Dictionary of Virginia Biography". For two years, he was the editor of a family newsletter, "The Lett Gazette."

Area background information:
York County, Virginia was originally named Charles River and was one of the eight, original Virginia shires formed in 1634. The name changed to York in 1643, in honor of James the Duke of York. York County is 108-square-miles being roughly 27 miles long by 6 miles wide. The county seat is in Yorktown, the site where Lord Cornwallis surrendered the British Army during the American Revolution. York is approximately 50 miles from Richmond and 25 miles from Norfolk. Modern-day York County has land borders which include the cities of Poquoson, Hampton, Newport News, Williamsburg, James City County and Gloucester County. A large portion of the county is surrounded by water, being situated between the James and York Rivers.

Last name index includes:
Acrea, Ainslic, Allen, Almond, Alvis, Ammons, Amory, Anderson, Armfield, Armistead, Ashby, Austin, Ayres, Babe, Balfour, Ball, Banks, Barham, Barlow, Barron, Barry, Bartlett, Barziza, Bell, Belvin, Bennett, Bishop, Blanks, Blassingham, Blemthaem, Blizzard, Bonnawell, Boswell, Bowden, Bowers, Bowman, Bowser, Bratcher, Bray, Brown, Bruce, Bryan, Buchanan, Buckherst, Bunting, Burcher, Burnett, Burt, Busick, Byrd, Callis, Candlish, Cannon, Cardwell, Carmener, Carmines, Carter, Cary, Casay, Chandler, Chapman, Charles, Chisman, Christian, Claiborne, Clarke, Cluverius, Cogbill, Coleburn, Collina, Combs, Cooke, Coupland, Cowles, Cox, Crockett, Crowley, Curtis, Cuswell, Daewett, Davis, Dawson, Deneufville, Denfey, Dey, Dickie, Digges, Dixon, Dodd, Donnelly, Doughty, Drewett, Dumlavy, Dunenfville, Dunn, Dunton, Earnest, East, Eastwood, Eddins, Elliott, Evans, Farinholt, Finney, Firth, Flynn, Ford, Forrest, Foster, Frances, Freeman, Garrett, Gayle, Gillett, Gilman, Goodwin, Graham, Graves, Green, Griffin, Griffith, Grymes, Guthrie, Hall, Haniford, Hanniford, Hansford, Harris, Harwood, Haywood, Heath, Heller, Henley, Hewell, Hewes, Hickman, Hicks, Hofheimer, Hogg, Holliway, Holloway, Honghwourt, Hopkins, Hopson, Hornsby, Howard, Hubbard, Hubberd, Hudgins, Huggett, Hunley, Hunt, Hurt, Inslic, Inslie, Ironmonger, Jackson, Jamerson, James, Jarvis, Jenkins, Jennings, Johns, Johnson, Joiner, Jones, Jordan, Kellum, Kemp, Kerby, King, Lauson, Laverty, Lawson, Lebee, Lee, Lester, Lewis, Lindsay, Lindsey, Luck, Lyons, Maeland, Mahone, Mallicote, Mann, Marnex, Marshal, Martin, Mason, Maynard, McCandlish, McCann, Mercer, Messick, Miller, Mills, Mine, Minson, Mone, Mono, Montgomery, Moody, Moore, Moreland, Morgan, Morriss, Morrisson, Moss, Mountcastle, Mountfortt, Myers, Nelson, Newman, Nichols, Noel, Northingham, Nottingham, Owen, Owens, Page, Paine, Parker, Parsons, Parsson, Patrick, Pauls, Peachy, Peters, Pettis, Pettitt, Peyton, Phillips, Piggott, Poe, Pomroy, Powell, Power, Presson, Prince, Provos, Pruvoo, Pumphrey, Purro, Ray, Redcross, Reggin, Richardson, Roberts, Robertson, Robins, Rogers, Rollins, Roper, Rowe, Rowelle, Russell, Salter, Sanders, Sands, Saunders, Savage, Scott, Selator, Semple, Sheild, Shelburn, Sheldon, Shell, Sherwood, Shield, Sibley, Simpson, Slater, Slaughter, Smith, Snead, Southall, Speed, Spencer, Starlin, Starrback, Staves, Stroud, Stuart, Sullivan, Sweat, Sweeney, Tabb, Tanerdan, Taylor, Teagle, Tennis, Thomas, Thompson, Throckmorton, Tignor, Tinsley, Tolten, Topping, Tucker, Vader, Vaughan, Vest, Wade, Wainright, Walker, Wallace, Waller, Walls, Walter, Ward, Warden, Ware, Warren, Watkins, Watson, West, Weston, Wheeler, Whitaker, White, Whiting, Wilkins, Wilkinson, Willard, Williams, Williford, Wilson, Winder, Wise, Wiston, Wood, Woodson, Wootten, Worman, Wright, Wyatt, Wynne, Young