African American Research - Louisa County Historical Society

Compiled by the Louisa County Historical Society
2011
 Courthouse records date to 1742
 Wills, Deeds, Marriage, Death, Tax,
Judgments, Bond, Poll, Supervisors
Minutes, misc.
 Federal Census and Military Records
 Freedmen’s Bureau Office 1865-1868
 Courthouse records date to 1742
 Wills are downstairs (left)
 Deed books on main floor
(Abstracts have been published of
pre-1800 Wills and Deeds. Copies
of all local publications in library.)
 Marriage Records on Main Floor of
Courthouse in Deed Room.
 Microfilms of complete records
downstairs
 Death Register in print 1853- 1896
More death
certificates
(1912-1939) online at
www.trevilians.com.
 Free
Black
Register
 Available
in Print
Includes data from wills from
1780 and other records to 1865.
 Tax records
 Voter/Poll tax records
 Court Orders/Judgments
 Chancery records
http://www.lva.virginia.gov/chancery
 Louisa Court House was a sub-district office from
1865-1868
 Records contain countless names
 First Freedmen’s schools, labor contracts, letters
 Outrages listed online
http://freedmensbureau.com/virginia/indexoutrages.htm
 Cohabitation lists collected in 1866
Colonial records:
Births and deaths
of enslaved
members of
church also
recorded.
http://stpetersnewkent.org/
Geneology
 Cemetery Records (many online at
www.trevilians.com
 Narrative Accounts- Google Books
 John Mercer Langston
 Henry Box Brown
 Association for the Study of African
American Life and History
 Historical Society Archives
 Family history notes from researchers
 Photos
 Articles in our magazine collection
www.louisaheritage.org
 Great Awakening- Samuel Davies and the Trans-
Atlantic Campaign for Slave Literacy 1750’s
 (Va Hist Soc. Magazine Vol 111 No.4)
 John Todd at Providence (1747)Presbyterian
Church
 Quaker Community in Green Springs, which
split and dissolved over slavery
 Henry Box Brown, born at The Hermitage near
Cuckoo
 Indexing and transcription of
Freedmen’s Bureau Files
 Research on 58 Union Troops (free
black and enslaved) who claim Louisa
County as their birth place.
 See samples that follow
This document from
August 26, 1866 gives
heretofore unknown
information about when
the first Freedmen’s
schools were created.
Subsequent letters from
the FB officer indicate
the schools struggled to
get started due to funds,
teachers and
agricultural demands.

August the 26, 1866 by a meeting of the most prominent of Members of the freedmen’s Baptist
Church and other freemen, of almost every part of the County of Louisa; held at the freedmen’s
Church of Louisa C.H. Va of request and under the supervision of Lt. J. (Jacob) Roth, asst.
Superintendent B. of R.F &AL(Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Land) of Louisa Co. Va.
The following places or near to it were appointed for erection of a looghouse, to be used for a
freedmens School.

Mechanicksille
under supervision of
Fleming Ellen
McKee Shop
“ “
George E. Watts
Yanceyville
“ “
by Wm Masons near Yanceyville
Louisa C.H. (a schoolhouse is built)
Trustees: Wm Thurst_?
Near Thompsons X Roads “
“
Wm. Gasper by P. M. Morrison
Frederick Hall or Mount Galland “
Thomas Harris, Vistus Johnson, Louis Smith,
Minister
John W. Kinney, Kinneyshop








Walther Thurston by Tos. M. Baker
Henry Washington Johnson
Fountain Perkins, Rich’d Boyd, a sf
Robert Robertson, for Frank Leazans? by
Gooch


“


Kinneys Shop
“
“
? Co. Koc?
“
“


Rich’d Morse, near Ell Creek or in Frederick
Hall
The records have several
pieces of correspondence
between the Louisa Court
House officer and those in
North Carolina attempting to
arrange rail transport back
home.
Like the family of Patrick
Graves (later the founding
pastor of Laurel Hill Baptist
Church), many wives and
children were sold or removed
further south during the war.
2 of the 58 records in
the National Archives
which show place of
birth as Louisa County
for free or formerly
enslaved black soldiers.
Research could help
both genealogists and
historian tracing
voluntary or forced
migration patterns.
Please consider becoming a
member of the Louisa County
Historical Society.
We would appreciate both your
membership and assistance with
further research.
As you continue your research,
always feel free to contact us at
[email protected] .
Our phone is 540-967-5975
and our future programs are
always listed on our website
at www.louisahistory.org .
Elaine Taylor, Museum Director