Search

Louisa County (Va.) Apprenticeship Indentures, 1766-1900, 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.

Louisa County (Va.) Bonds/Comissions/Oaths, 1767-1924 circa, undated, typically consist of bonds, commissions, oaths, certificates, and appointments related to holding public office. Some collections can include ministers' bonds.

Louisa County (Va.) Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands Records, 1865-1866, includes orders regarding patrols. The documents relate to orders from Louisa county to form patrols to disarm freedmen in the county and a copy of a letter sent by the Freedmen's Bureau to Culpeper County instructing that such patrols were to be disbanded. The copy of the letter was sent to Louisa because the Freedmen's Bureau had been informed about the patrols and wrote to Louisa to instruct that the patrols there also be stopped and the seized arms returned to the freedmen. The ollection also includes a letter from Orlando Brown of the Freedmen's Bureau to the Louisa County Overseers of the Poor that 12 pauper freedmen of Louisa are currently being cared for by the Bureau and instructing the county to make arrangements for their provision (1865); reply to Orlando Brown's letter that no provision can be made for the paupers and that they should not be returned to the county since they left voluntarily (ca. 1865.); order that the Overseers of the Poor bind out Katy Gillespie, a freed girl (n.d.); order to place or bind out the children of two freed persons in jail for stealing (n.d.); order to the Overseers of the Poor to bind out John, Kitty and Anna Brown to David W. Isbell (n.d.)

Louisa County (Va.) Chancery Causes, 1753-1913 (bulk 1881-1913), consists of cases concerning issues of equity brought largely by residents of the county and filed in the circuit court. These cases often involve the following actions: divisions of estates or land, disputes over wills, disputes regarding contracts, debt, divorce, and business disputes. Other less prevalent issues include freedom suits, permissions to sell property, and disputes concerning trespass. Predominant documents found in these chancery causes include bills (documents the plaintiff's complaint), answers (defendant's response to the plaintiff's complaint), decrees (court's decision), depositions, affidavits, correspondence, lists of heirs, deeds, plats, wills, records involving enslaved individuals, business records or vital statistics.

Louisa County (Va.) Clerk's Fee Bill. Consists of a bill from County Clerk John Nelson to Thomas Price for various court fees; no date.

Louisa County (Va.) Fiduciary Records, 1700-1909, include miscellaneous records filed in a local court by trustees, administrators, executors, guardians, and committees that related to the performance of their duties managing a person's estate. These records typically include the following; bonds, appraisements, audits, inventories, accounts, estate divisions, settlements, dowery records, etc. Information related to enslaved people are commonly found in these records.

Louisa County (Va.) Free Negro and Slave Records, 1770-1863, consists of "Free Negro" Tax Records, 1851-1864, Free Person in want of registration, circa 1850s; Patrol records, 1770-1863; and various records, 1773-1855

Louisa County (Va.) Ministers' Returns, 1781-1853, records the returns made by individual ministers of marriages performed within the county. This volume was originally entitled, "Marriage Returns." Returns in this volume, prior to 1853, record the names of the parties, the date of the marriage ceremony--either month, day and year or month and year and the minister's name and denomination. As part of the return process, ministers filed marriage certificates with the county clerk. These signed documents certified that a minister had performed the actual marriage ceremony between the named individuals on a certain date. The majority of returns in this volume are in the form of lists. By 1853, more information was included in lists or certificates from the individual ministers such as the place of the marriage ceremony, the names of the parties, the ages of the parties, the status of the parties before marriage and the occupation of the groom. In addition, the parents' names of both parties and the birthplaces of both parties were sometimes noted.