Collections

Rockbridge County (Va.) Apprenticeship Indentures, 1840-1895, are bonds and contracts of apprenticeship given by the Overseers of the Poor, showing the names of master and apprentice, the trade to be taught, details of the contract, the amount of the bond and the names of sureties. Many of the apprentices bound out prior to 1866 were free African Americans.

Rockbridge County (Va.) Free Negro and Slave Records, 1836-1864. The collection is comprised of free negro registrations, 1836-1860; applications and petitions to remain in the state, 1841-1855; petitions for voluntary reduction to slavery, 1859-1862; a photocopy of the index to register of free negroes, 1831-1860; and various free negro and slave records, 1849-1864.

Rockbridge County (Va.) Register of Marriages and Marriage Licenses and Estray Book, 1823-1856, is actually three separate records in one single volume. Starting with the front of the volume, the Register of Marriages, 1823-1850, records the names of both parties (groom listed first), the date of the marriage and by whom married. There are 70 hand numbered pages in this section. Marriages between "free persons of color" are noted in 1840 and 1848-1849. The Register of Marriage Licenses, 1850-1853, includes the date of the license, the parties names (with notation of bride's parental affiliation), the date of the marriage and by whom married. Pages are handnumbered 70-101. Marriages between "free persons of color" or "free negroes" are noted in 1852 and 1853. The volume is then flipped over. Initially, this side of the volume was going to be used to record land records--note entries from 1831. However, it became an estray book instead. By definition, an estray book is " a register giving public notice of valuable, tame animals, either lost or found wandering and presumed escaped from their owners, allowing the owners to reclaim the animals." This section records estrays from 1831-1856. However, one last entry was made in 1949-1950. This section indicates by whom the animal was taken up, before what justice the person went and when and the description and appraisement (value) of the animal. Pages, in this section, are unnumbered.