Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-03-15

public Office during this period, with
every name that appears upon any paper,
miscellaneous or otherwise. There are
abstracts giving the essential points of
every deed, every will and every land
grant, with the reports of all commits
sions. tax lists, delinquent lists. mar
riages and marriage bonds, lists of
French and Indian war and of revolu-
tionary soldiers. pension declarations and
many other subjects.
The material for these manuscripts was
scattered for years in number of places
more or less difficult of access, for there
We're a number of towns where courts
We're held in this large territory. The
rich historical value of the Augusta coun-
ty records is attested by the fact that
the Carnegie museum of historical re-
search has published excerpts from them
in a number of bulletins, including among
them the records Of deeds entered at Fort
Dunmore, Pittsburgh. in 1875 and 1776.
Judge Chalkley had the advantage of
access to these old documents, which
were so ill arranged that no one had any
knowledge of their contents. and he spent
years in making a copy of them or a brief
Of the contents of those which We're too
voluminous to be given in full. Ere
quently he would find long-searched-
for will in a bundle of land grants, or he
would run across a long forgotten will
fact that SO many of these old documents
could not be located by genealogists has
caused many to doubt their existence.
Many old records, which have been be-
lieved to have been destroyed, have been
identified and copied. Their publication
this year will make 1t possible for thou
sands of individuals to connect the miss
ing links of their family history more
accurately than a professional genealo-
gist could do 1t without them.
X
The existence of some Augusta county
records is known to people in every state
in the Union, although
Material for their full extent has
-. been a matter Of con-
the vicinity of Washington have made
thousands of dollars in the last twenty
five years by going to the old courthouse
at Staunton, Va, and making what con-
nections they could from the records at
their command There are thousands of
connections, however, that could not be
established because the right document
could not be located, c..i great major
ity of those difficulties will be overcome
by the publication of these old records.
Genealogists in England. Scotland and
Germany frequently send for information
from the Augusta county records. There
are several prominent Scottish families
branches of which were included among
the immigrants who helped to settle this
territory, whose descendants make fire.
quent applications for information to set
tie some disputed point. Large fees
have been charged by the genealogists
for the time spent in quest of this infor-
nation, and the publication of the records
will cut off the revenues of a few by
throwing open to the world the full use
of the records themselves.
x X
While the immigration from New Eng
land helped to populate the northern part
Of the states
Trace Ancestry of the middle
to Augusta County. bulk Of the
western population Of this country has
been proved to have been derived from