While this is not a cohabitation register, Fluvanna County has a very
interesting volume in its clerk's office which I wish someone would
transcribe. It is a book of the registrations by freedmen of all of their
children by name and age and amounts to a goodly number of pages. I have not
seen this in other Virginia counties and just stumbled on it one day a few
years ago while visiting the Fluvanna Clerk's office in Palmyra. It is a
wonderful compilation and amounts to a census of the recently freed
population in about 1866 if my memory serves me correctly. I do not recall
if Fluvanna County has an actual cohabitation register or not.

Eric Grundset
DAR Library
Washington, DC

        -----Original Message-----
        From:   Hollis Gentry [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
        Sent:   Tuesday, October 17, 2000 12:46 AM
        To:     [log in to unmask]
        Subject:        Re: Cohabitation Registers

        Marriage records for Norfolk have survived for 1866.
        I'm not sure if they were copied from separate racial
        registers or individual returns of ministers, but the
        microfilmed copy includes both black and white
        marriages.  Further distinctions are made between free
        born and colored brides and grooms.

        These records though, wouldn't constitute cohabitation
        records because they don't refer to prior slave
        marriages.  And I've not compared the Norfolk records
        with other cities.  Perhaps local record keeping
        practices might explain why FB agents didn't prepare
        or submit the registers to Bureau HQs.

        I don't have marriage totals for Norfolk, but the
        Goochland register recorded nearly 1,000 marriages,
        the one for Nelson County recorded little over 630 and
        the Louisa Courthouse register recorded more than 1200
        marriages.  I would estimate the Norfolk numbers to be
        higher than any of these, but again, I don't have
        totals.

        I also recall seeing marriage returns amongst DC FB
        records for Northern VA couples. However I'm not sure
        if the records reflect a preference or requirement to
        record marriages in Washington.

        To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the
instructions
        at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html

To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions
at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html