I am thrilled to see the Henry County register go online in this form, since I made extensive use of a transcription done in the 1970s when the original was nowhere to be found. It later turned up on a shelf in the county clerk's office. (I told the story of this document in "The Hairstons: An American Family in Black and White.") I was able to reconstruct and extend some family trees by using the Cohabitation Register side-by-side with the voluminous Hairston plantation records, the county Death Record, and other sources. The blog post notes the overwhelming presence of the surname "Hairston" in this record, and makes some comments on what the register tells us about naming practices. The blog speculates that: "The 24 [African-American] women named "America" in Henry County would indicate a strong sense of national pride." It should be noted that at least one of the white plantation mistresses was named America Hairston and she may have been the point of origin for this name. On another point, the blog says, "Taking the name of a former master may have also been a way of maintaining extended family and community ties with former slaves from the same plantation." I agree, and have long thought that some African-American surnames derived from the owner's name could well have been "place markers," a way of saying "we as a family come from the African-American community that lived on a Hairston place." One of the very interesting patterns to emerge in this register is the longevity of the marriages among the enslaved people. Henry Wiencek ______________________________________ To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe please see the instructions at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html