News

Editor Barbara Vines Little opens this issue with her column “In This Issue: Clues and Answers,” and the theme holds throughout: this issue features a collection of documents that offer genuine clues—and sometimes real answers—to stubborn research problems. The centerpiece, transcribed by Lisbeth Chandler, is a remarkable 1759 Fairfax County deed in which George Mason … Read more

This issue opens with Thomas W. Jones’s glowing review of Barbara Vines Little’s A Researcher’s Guide to Virginia’s Historical Records, a 658-page masterwork he calls essential for anyone researching Virginia’s past. From there, dive into Susan Lynch Aumaier’s fascinating detective story “When Marriage Bonds Disagree,” which untangles how competing 18th-century transcriptions of Brunswick County marriage … Read more

Featured Articles Proving Marriages Without Marriage Records: Legal Enforcement, Dissenting Churches, and Virginia’s Marriage Gap, by Susan Lynch Aumaier. Marriage records are among the most sought-after documents in genealogical research, yet in many regions they never existed, were never recorded, or did not survive. Understanding why marriages disappear from the record—and how to prove them … Read more