Source:Fleet, Beverley. Virginia Colonial Abstracts

Bibliographic Citation

Fleet, Beverley, (ed.). Virginia Colonial Abstracts. Volumes 1-34?

viz: Source:Virginia Colonial Abstracts, Vol. 34. Washington County Register, 1782-1820

Inline Citation

Source:Virginia Colonial Abstracts Vol:page

Volume Summary

The series "Virginia Colonial Abstracts" should be a valuable resource for genealogists concerned with Virginia Ancestors in the colonial period. There appears to be no single systematic summary of the content of this series, and even identifying volume numbers and year of publication is difficult because of erratic citing of this work in standard catalogues such as "World Cat". The following is an attempt at bringing the contents of "Virginia Colonial Abstracts" into a form that can be readily examined across the many volumes. Basic data has been culled from World Cat entries. Some entries may represent duplicates for the same volume representing the original publication and reprints. (It is not always possible to identify such duplicates based on title alone; some entires show similar but not identical titles, and this may represent independent works, or vagaraties of republication.) [See retailers editorial description below]

Editorial Description

The following is a portion of a longer review provided at Amazon.com.

Published between 1938 and 1949, the original thirty-four paperback volumes of Virginia Colonial Abstracts brought together a wealth of data from the records of Tidewater Virginia--vital records of birth, marriage, and death; tax lists; court orders; militia lists; wills; and deeds. The result of extensive research in county courthouses, municipal and state archives, and private collections, most of the abstracts were based on the earliest records known to exist--in the case of Accomack County, for instance, the oldest continuous records of English-speaking America; in the case of King and Queen County, which suffered the loss of its records in 1864, a unique collection of eighteenth-century materials still in private hands. As important as this work proved, however, it was not without certain flaws. Records of some counties were published in fragments and scattered among various volumes, while the inferior quality of the printing aggravated the problem even further. What is more, as each of the thirty-four volumes was separately indexed, searching for names was needlessly protracted. To rectify these deficiencies, the contents of Virginia Colonial Abstracts have been rearranged, re-typed, and consolidated in three paperback volumes, each with its own master index. Thus resurrected, Virginia Colonial Abstracts is now the major genealogical resource it always promised to be.

Usage Tips

This series of publications provides abstracts from the colonial records of Virginia. Each volume focuses on a specific county, or subject.

May be ordered through the nearest Family History Center.

FHL film numbers

• 6145973
• 6145974