The family registers preserved in the Bibles of Caroline County families are one of the few remaining sources of vital statistics and family relationships of Caroline families. Since colonial times, Virginia families have recorded their births, marriages, deaths, and other notable events in their family Bible. In many cases, newspaper notices of marriages and deaths were clipped from papers and placed in Bibles.
Entries from family Bibles have been considered legal records for matters such as proving birth or marriage dates, especially since Social Security was inaugurated. These valuable records, compiled from hundreds of family Bibles, have been arranged alphabetically by family name. In a number of cases, slaves are also recorded, as slave owners kept vital records on their slaves for tax purposes. This is of particular importance as the pre-Civil War census did not record slaves by name; only by number. Other entries refer to unusual weather, family pets and livestock; provide the physical description of a newborn child; and record family hardships. Lead-in paragraphs pinpoint locations in the county where the families lived, and provide the published sources on the families along with the location of the records from which these were copied. In some cases, information may be gleaned as to where members went when they left Caroline County.
This book contains records from hundreds of family Bibles, which often contain vital statistics and family relationships; sometimes provide the physical description of a newborn child; often list names and vital records of slaves; record family hardships; and much more.
Herbert Ridgeway Collins
2008, 8½x11, paper, 374 pp.
ISBN: 0788447580
101-C4758
