Why Pre-Revolutionary Records May be Lost Forever

New items in blue, 3/2006

 

            Before the Revolutionary War the colonies of Maryland, NC and Virginia were divided into Anglican Church parishes that were civil as well as geographical units.  The parish vestry was the governing body and was popularly elected.  Vestry “minutes” included parish business, including property transactions and welfare.  Most importantly, births, deaths and marriages were recorded in the parish “registers”.  Most vestry minutes remain and have been published except that in NC only those of the parishes in Edenton, Northhampton County, Bath and New Bern exist.  Unfortunately most of the “registers” – which would give us the genealogy information we want – simply do not exist. As reported by the Library of Virginia, “…until 1780 marriages could be performed only by ministers of the established church who were required to record the marriages in the parish register…Very few of these parish registers have survived.”  Quaker marriages were recorded in their records.  Beginning in 1780 ministers were required to record marriages in the county records.   The library further states that “Very few Virginia marriage records before 1715 survive, and most counties have incomplete marriage records prior to the Revolutionary War.”

 

The Maryland parish records have survived much more intact.  That is one reason why the Phelps research from that area is so much more extensive and detailed.

 

I can find no reason as to why these parish records disappeared.  Perhaps the immediate decline of and disregard for the Anglican Church, the English State church to which everyone had paid taxes, resulted in a loss of so many records.

 

            There were many Virginia parishes. I researched all the available parish minutes and many miscellaneous county records in the area of north of Caswell Co, NC into Va looking for our. The only parish registers (listing vital data) which remain are Bristol parish and the parishes in coastal areas of Virginia. None remain for North Carolina.

 

Virginia Burn Counties

       Approximately two dozen Virginia counties have had extensive loss of records at various times, primarily in the period from 1700 to 1900. The losses are mainly due to the Civil War as Virginia was a major battle field. However, a significant number of records losses occurred as a result of fires and the Revolutionary War. Some counties experienced record destruction as many as three separate times. Virginia counties which have suffered the most severe losses include:

          Appomattox      Gloucester      Nansemond      Warwick

          Buchanan        Hanover         New Kent

          Buckingham      Henrico         Nottoway

          Caroline        James City      Prince George

          Charles City    King and Queen  Prince William

          Dinwiddie       King William    Rockingham

          Elizabeth City  Mathews         Stafford

 

Source:  http://freenet.vcu.edu/sigs/genealogy/burn-co.txt