Brent Tarter wrote:

> Over the past weekend when none of the Library of Virginia subscribers was
> in the office to take notice of the discussion of clerks and county records,
> a good many inexact comments got posted that may be misleading.
>
> I do not know all the answers, but I will make some inquiries and try to get
> more details.
>
> For the nonce, all the deed, order, and will books and some other county
> records compiled prior to 1865 have been microfilmed and are available at
> the Library of Virginia and elsewhere. Nobody needs permission from anybody
> to consult them. Post-1865 records of a similar sort for some counties have
> also been filmed. Consult the Library of Virginia's web site at
> http://www.lva.lib.va.us and click open the index to the letter C and look
> for the county records site.
>
> There are many other classes of local records that the clerks of the courts
> or the clerks of the cities and counties preserve, although some of those
> clerks have transferred their holdings to the archives at the Library of
> Virginia. In most instances, I suspect, the difficulties that some
> researchers have encountered in getting access to records involved some of
> these documents, which include suit papers, other unbound records, and the
> like.
>
> Virginia law has always appeared to me (a non-lawyer) to be at war with
> itself. The public records act and the Virginia Freedom of Information Act
> (why does everybody always assume that the Feds control everything?) specify
> that these are public documents to which the citizens of Virignia have
> access. However, the laws also make the clerks custodians of those records,
> with the result that some clerks do not make it easy for the public to get
> that access. I think people (citizens of Virginia, certianly) should be
> politely persistent in pursuit of their right to consult public documents.
>
> Freedom of Information actions to gain access to documents should be
> necessary only in cases involving documents about which there is some
> question as to the legal status of the records, whether they are privileged
> or classed as working papers; but in practice it does not always work out
> that way.
>
> In some other instances, portions of a run of a court's or a county's or a
> city's records may be closed for archival processing, but that is (or ought
> to be) always a temporary thing.
>
> I will try to find out some more and let you know. In the meantime, please
> don't assume that an experience in one place with one group of records
> governs what may happen with another group of records or in another place.
>
> Brent Tarter
> The Library of Virginia
> [log in to unmask]
>
> Visit the Library of Virginia's web site at http://www.lva.lib.va.us
>
> To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe please see the instructions at
> http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-roots.html.

Brent,
Something you did not mention in your informative message - Clerks are elected
officials.

Bill Lassetter
Charlottesville, Va.

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