After reading all the letters on this I felt compelled to respond. This is a
part of history that some clerks must feel, because they are not interested
that others do not have the right to see those records.
From many years of traveling to Maryland to do research, the Maryland
Archives-in my estimation- has the best original source records I have found.
You use an index-card catalog or books- and look for persons you are
researching. This will tell you for wills, deeds, grants, patents,
marriages-what ever the record you might want- what to request. They have
printed forms  that you fill out. the librarians are so courteous and go to
the stacks and bring them to you at your table.  You are allowed to have on
the table just a certain number of volumes. And believe me those books are
tremendous and heavy. They are ORIGINALS but are preserved with some form of
"tissue paper"-possibly acid free. So even tho you are looking at originals,
your fingers do not actually damage those pages. If there are records you w
ould like copied-they do not allow Xerox copies as they damage those pages
fromthe 1600s up to fairly recent records- you tell the libraian  what you
would like copied. This cost $2 a page or did the last time I was there. It
is not cheap but you have a photgraphic copy of the original which is great.
I have several hundred dollars in those copies, due to fact that I lived to
far to go back and check again. If all librarys in our nation, especially
those of the original colonies and early states would organize and maintain
their records in such a fashion, we could look at the records and still
preserve them. The counties could do that as well.
     Thos e records on any level should be maintained and preserved. But the
records of each county or state do not BELONG to the person in that office.
They are records belonging to TAX PAYERS. Many people working in governmental
offices, be it city, county or state should realize they WORK FOR the people.
 Those records should be open to all the people ALL the time.
BUT -and I emphasize BUT- the people should be responsible citizens and
revere those records like it was their most prized possession and show
respect for them as there again they belong to ALL the people of this nation,
not to just a few.
     I will get off the soap box but its been a while since I was in the
Library of Va and am not familiar with their procedures as I am those of
Maryland where I have done hundreds of hours of work altho living many states
away.
SArah Browder

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