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Archive CD Books USA Newsletter
4 February 2009
Issue 2009, Number 1
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In this issue:
o MONTHLY SPECIAL - 20% OFF
o NEW: Virginia Law Reports series
o New Data CD from the U.S.
o New Downloadable Data CDs
o 2009 Genealogy Conference and "Land Cruise"
o Special pricing for libraries/societies
o Free shipping
o How to reach us
=== MONTHLY SPECIAL - 20% OFF ===========
For a limited time, the following popular data CD, supporting a full-text search, is just $22.36 or 20% off its regular retail price of $27.95. You can even download it directly to your computer, saving the cost of shipping.
Charles William Manwaring, compiler, A DIGEST OF THE EARLY CONNECTICUT PROBATE RECORDS, HARTFORD DISTRICT, 1635-1750, 3 VOLUMES, (1904-6) 2008.
$22.36 Sale price.
$27.95 Regular retail price.
http://www.ArchiveCDBooksUSA.com/find_acdb.mvc?refid=NEWS&p=US0360
This essential tool for colonial Connecticut research contains abstracts and extracts of the estate papers of about three thousand individuals who died in Connecticut between 1635 and 1750. The records include wills, inventories, distributions and other probate documents from all available sources.
During the earliest years covered by these volumes, Hartford jurisdiction covered a large part of the colony. As the number of towns and the population of the colony grew, Hartford probate district was carved up into more and smaller units. The first volume contains a section which details the division of Connecticut into probate districts.
The compiler has gathered both loose papers and recorded documents, giving proper volume and page citations for the recorded records. In the earliest volumes, the colony clerk maintained court and probate records in separate sections of the same volumes, although both sections might contain probate material, all of which is included here. The compiler also sought out and included probate documents from other collections maintained by the colony and now in the Connecticut State Archives.
The wills are transcribed verbatim, while the inventories and some of the other document types are published in abbreviated form. A full index provides access to the tens of thousands of persons named in these records.
=== NEW: Virginia Law Reports series =========
Archives CD Books USA is proud to announce the first releases from an exciting new project, undertaken in cooperation of the Virginia Genealogical Society (VGS). The following introduction and book summaries were written by Barbara Vines Little, CG, for the February, 2009 issue of the Virginia Genealogical Society newsletter and are reprinted here by permission.
The Virginia Law Reports
Virginia law is based upon English common law. It has evolved over time through the enactment of statutes by legislative action (statute law) and the interpretation of those statues by the judiciary (case law). While the interpretation of the law in an individual case is not binding on other cases, it does set precedent and is often used as a basis for the interpretation of new cases. Case law, unlike statutes, is difficult to track; thus through the years, the individual opinions have been collected by various "reporters," at first informally and later more formally into collections called reports. These reports include, unlike the official court orders, an explanation of the reasoning behind the interpretation. A history of the evolution of the Virginia reports is available in Bryson's "Virginia Law Books: Essays and Bibliographies."(1)
The particular value of the Virginia reports lies in the fact that the majority of the records of Virginia's appellate courts were destroyed by fire in 1865. The reports are one of the few surviving sources for information on the cases heard on appeal. And while the reports focus is the law, in the process of presenting the law, they frequently provide information about individuals, families and family relationships (sometime multi-generational) that are unavailable elsewhere.
Between 1900-1903 the Michie Company republished in 26 volumes, as the "Virginia Reports Annotated," the first 74 volumes of the court reports covering the period through 1880. These include a volume by Jefferson which reports on some colonial decisions between 1730 and 1772, the remainder are post colonial. However, the information presented in the court cases often span a number of decades and consequently, often include events and data about individuals in the early 1700s.
In 2005 Ken Craft of Norcross, Georgia, donated a complete set of the "Virginia Reports Annotated" as well as 6 other volumes (three of which are reviewed below) to the Virginia Genealogical Society in the hope that they could arrange for material to be made more readily available to the genealogical community through the compilation of a general index or by other means. In 2008, the society entered into an agreement with Archive CD Books, USA to publish the volumes in a fully-searchable digital format. The first three volumes are now available and are reviewed below. As future volumes are made available they will be reviewed here as well.
R. T. Barton, ed., "Virginia Colonial Decisions: the Reports by Sir John Randolph and by Edward Barradall of Decisions of the General Court of Virginia 1728- 1741" (Boston, Mass.: the Boston Book Company, 1909) fully searchable digital edition by Archive CD Books, USA, 2009. ($19.95, http://www.ArchiveCDBooksUSA.com/us0627.htm)
The General Court of Virginia which like the county court, was a court of original jurisdiction, also dealt with criminal cases and heard cases on appeal from the county courts. Its records are no longer extant. Since this court dealt with the cases that often involved tangled legal questions, the details of cases and the basis for decisions were used by the judges to decide later cases. Notes or "reports" were kept of the more important cases. The reports kept by Sir John Randolph and Edward Barradall which provide details of cases argued before the General Court from 1728 through 1741 are the only surviving colonial reports except for Jefferson's notes. Although the cases were argued in the 1700s, events detailed in the cases frequently date to the 1600s. And, although the point of the "reports" was to record the basis for the decision, intertwined in the legal description of the basis for the case and the points that were argued are tantalizing tidbits, sometimes even family lineages such as that described below in the case of Booth v Dudley which is concerned with the transfer of title to a tract of land owned by Peter Ransome.
"Peter Ransom was seized of 1100 acres of Land having Issue, James, George and Wm. by his last Will and Testam't Devised 350 Acres the Land in Question to George and his Heirs forever and died; . . . George. . . by his last Will & Testam't. Devised this Land . . . to Eliz'a his only Child; . . . George died and Elizabeth his Daughter and Heir. . . Intermarried with Rob't Dudley some time in the year 16__. and they had Issue Rob't Dudley. . . . Robert Dudley and his Wife [Elizabeth, daughter of George Ransom] by Deeds . . . Convey[ed] this 350 Acres of Land to James Ransom and his heirs with . . . Deeds . . . acknowledged in Gloucester Court . . . [on]16 August 1694. . . . James Ransom . . . by his last Will and Testament Devised the Land to his 3 sons George, Robert and Peter."
The case also notes that Elizabeth Dudley's first husband died on 20 October 1701, her second husband died in 1710 and she married within a year or less Thomas Elliott who died 19 November 1716. Elizabeth died 23 December 1718. Details such as this are hard enough to come by in any county much less a burned county like Gloucester.
Women and, more importantly, women's maiden names, also appear frequently in these cases. For example, we learn that Rebecca, daughter of William Pinkethman who died testate in York, married after his death Robert Cobbs and that Rebecca and Robert's daughter Elizabeth Cobbs married James Shields. And, even when the married name(s) of the daughters (or sisters) are not given, the style of the suit will often suggest the surname name of the husband.
Although many points of law presented in these pages are complex, others explain concepts of the law in easily understood terms: "If a Man by his Will devises all his Lands and afterwards Purchases other Lands the new purchased Lands shall not pass [by will], for a Man can't give that which he has not, and which was void in its original can never be good. If an Infant makes a Will it's void, tho' he come of full age before he die. So of a feme Covert [married woman]."
For those who wish to learn more about the law of entail and inheritance, the rules regarding the heir-at-law's right to property, dower and courtesy rights, these cases can be especially helpful. Rules regarding the inheritance of slaves and how the law of inheritance differed during that period when they were considered real property are also discussed in some of the cases.
In addition to the reports, this two-volume set contains an extensive 250 page discussion of the colonial government providing a history of the transcripts of the reports, and a discussion of the land, the people, the government, church, the city, education, the law and lawyers, the courts and the reporters. This is an excellent resource for those interested in the history of the courts and the laws.
Robert R. Howison, "Reports of Criminal Trials in the Circuit, State and United States Courts, Held in Richmond, Virginia" (Richmond, Va.: George M. West & Brother, 1851. fully searchable digital edition by Archive CD Books, USA, 2009. ($12.95, http://www.ArchiveCDBooksUSA.com/us0628.htm)
This volume provides a unique look at life in Virginia in 1850. Criminal trials are rarely considered a source of information on the lives of individuals. Criminals, whether murders or thieves, are rarely sought after for additions to our family trees. We fail to consider that information presented in their trials is not limited to the criminal and his act.
Physical descriptions, occupations, relationships, description of day-to-day activities are things we expect to find in letters, journals and diaries. Yet all of these and more appear in the criminal trials described in this volume. These detailed reports of criminal trials on charges ranging from counterfeiting to murder conducted in the local, state and federal courts held in Henrico County provide detailed physical descriptions of both the person charged with the crime and other individuals involved in the crime, and note a variety of occupations ranging from lieutenant of the night watch, to contractor, to exchange broker to the lady who refused to describe the type of house she kept.
We're told who lived next door, get descriptions of entertainment available in town, the attire worn by a variety of participants, and given detailed descriptions of business transactions, and such things as the ports of call of boats traveling the James River and the "normal" activities of travelers, as well as the details of family relationships.
There are references to families from the burned counties of Caroline and Hanover, a discussion of the basis for the legal determination of free Negro status, and descriptions of medical treatments for wounds and causes of death. These reports provide a rarely available window into the world of our ancestors.
(1) W. Hamilton Bryson, "Reports of Cases," Virginia Law Books: Essays and Bibliographies (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 2000), 86-136.
=== New Data CD from the U.S. ==============
This additional new data CD from the U.S. are now available from ArchiveCDBooksUSA.com:
Rev. John Alden, THE STORY OF A PILGRIM FAMILY; FROM THE MAYFLOWER TO THE PRESENT TIME WITH AUTOBIOGRAPHY, RECOLLECTIONS, LETTERS, INCIDENTS, AND GENEALOGY OF THE AUTHOR, REV. JOHN ALDEN, IN HIS 83RD YEAR.
$12.95 http://www.ArchiveCDBooksUSA.com/find_acdb.mvc?refid=NEWS&p=US0618
Reverend John Alden has brought together in one volume a wide variety of information on the Alden family, including his own autobiography, genealogical information on his own close relatives and the early descendants of John Alden of the Mayflower, and dozens of well-told stories on many topics. (more...)
=== New Downloadable Data CDs ===============
This following data CDs are now available as a download from ArchiveCDBooksUSA.com, saving the cost of shipping:
J.H. French, GAZETTEER OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK: EMBRACING A COMPREHENSIVE VIEW OF THE GEOGRAPHY, GEOLOGY, AND GENERAL HISTORY OF THE STATE, AND A COMPLETE HISTORY AND DESCRIPTION OF EVERY COUNTY, CITY, TOWN, VILLAGE, AND LOCALITY... (DOWNLOAD), (1860) 2008.
$9.95 http://www.ArchiveCDBooksUSA.com/find_acdb.mvc?refid=NEWS&p=US0284-DL
This classic and essential volume collects a wide variety of information on the state of New York, treating first of the state as a whole, and then covering all counties, cities and towns. Each section contains topographical and historical data, accompanied by statistical tables on many subjects. (more...)
INSCRIPTIONS ON TOMBSTONES IN MADISON, CONN., ERECTED PRIOR TO 1800 (DOWNLOAD), (1900) 2008.
$4.95 http://www.ArchiveCDBooksUSA.com/find_acdb.mvc?refid=NEWS&p=US0324-DL
This volume provides complete, verbatim transcriptions of the inscriptions on all tombstones for the town of Madison, Connecticut, (formerly a part of the town of Guilford) with dates prior to 1800. These inscriptions were gathered by a number of transcribers, from four cemeteries in the town. (more...)
John A. Marshall, AMERICAN BASTILE. A HISTORY. THE ARBITRARY ARRESTS AND IMPRISONMENT OF AMERICAN CITIZENS IN THE NORTHERN AND BORDER STATES, ON ACCOUNT OF THEIR POLITICAL OPINIONS, DURING THE LATE CIVIL WAR.
$14.95 http://www.ArchiveCDBooksUSA.com/find_acdb.mvc?refid=NEWS&p=US0342-DL
Marshall has gathered about a hundred accounts of persons imprisoned during the Civil War on suspicion of plans to fight for the South or conspire against the North. The narratives contain details of the arrest of the suspect, the conditions during imprisonment and the attempts to obtain release. (more...)
Rhode Island Geographic Board in cooperation with the United States Geographic Board, OFFICIAL GAZETTEER OF RHODE ISLAND (DOWNLOAD), (1932) 2008.
$9.95 http://www.ArchiveCDBooksUSA.com/find_acdb.mvc?refid=NEWS&p=US0355-DL
This official compilation gathers together more than five thousand Rhode Island place names in one alphabetical sequence. The list includes political units of the state such as counties, towns and villages, as well as physical features, such as rivers, islands and even exposed rocks in the harbors. (more...)
John Fiske, NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND (DOWNLOAD), (1902) 2008.
$19.95 http://www.ArchiveCDBooksUSA.com/find_acdb.mvc?refid=NEWS&p=US0609-DL
Fiske devotes this volume of his series on colonial American history to the French colonies of North America and to related aspects of New England history in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, bringing the story down to 1763, laying the groundwork for his volumes on the Revolution. (more...)
John Fiske, THE DUTCH AND QUAKER COLONIES IN AMERICA (DOWNLOAD), (1900) 2008.
$24.95 http://www.ArchiveCDBooksUSA.com/find_acdb.mvc?refid=NEWS&p=US0610-DL
Fiske devotes this volume of his series on colonial American history first to New Amsterdam and the early history of New York and New Jersey, then to the settlement of Pennsylvania and of the territory that became Delaware. He then carries the history of these colonies down to the Revolutionary era. (more...)
John Fiske, THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA, WITH SOME ACCOUNT OF ANCIENT AMERICA AND THE SPANISH CONQUEST (DOWNLOAD), (1892) 2008.
$29.95 http://www.ArchiveCDBooksUSA.com/find_acdb.mvc?refid=NEWS&p=US0611-DL
These two volumes constitute the opening section of Fiske's massive history of colonial North America. Here he describes the Native American peoples prior to the European voyages of discovery, then relates the voyages of discovery themselves, to which he adds material on the Spanish conquests. (more...)
=== 2009 Genealogy Conference and "Land Cruise" to Washington D.C. =======
Representatives of Archive CD Books USA will attend the 2009 Genealogy Conference and "Land Cruise" to Washington D.C." (26-30 Aug 2009) sponsored by our sister company, Wholly Genes, Inc. Much of the inventory from the international Archive CD Books Project will be available in a vendor booth at that conference, offering you the chance to stock up on items that are missing from your collection while saving the cost of shipping.
Now in its 5th year, this popular conference focuses on providing first-class genealogical speakers on topics that will interest all researchers. To that end, this years speaker list includes some of the most respected and knowledgeable professional genealogists in the world, including:
- John Philip Colletta, Ph.D. - a popular speaker, prolific author, and expert on research at the Library of Congress, among many other topics.
- Marie Varrelman Melchiori, CG, CGL - a full-time researcher for 30 years, an expert on the National Archives, military records, and other topics.
- Patricia O'Brien Shawker, CG - the Director of the National Institute on Genealogical Research, author, and an expert on research at the DAR Library and National Archives, among other topics.
- Craig Roberts Scott, CG - publisher, professional researcher for more than 23 years, and an expert on a wide variety of record types and resources, including colonial, Civil War, federal records, migration, military, Quaker, and government publications.
The four-day conference will start with a day and a half of lectures about methodology, repositories, records, and finding aids in D.C. (including NARA, the Library of Congress, and the DAR), followed by a full-day research trip to Washington D.C. (the "land cruise" part), and then another day and a half of presentations, among other activities.
Just 10 days after the original announcement by Wholly Genes, Inc., the conference is already more than 70% sold out -- so don't miss your chance to attend this unique event, learn how to be a better researcher, and browse a wide selection of products from the Archive CD Books Project.
For more information about the 2009 Genealogy Conference and "Land Cruise," please visit:
http://www.WhollyGenes.com/conference.htm
=== Special pricing for libraries/societies ===============
Libraries and membership societies that serve the genealogical community can receive a discount of at least 33% off from ArchiveCDBooksUSA.com and a FREE on-site network license.
It is a great way for libraries/societies on a limited budget to serve their patrons and members. It is also a great way for you to get access to data CDs that you may not want to purchase individually.
Please ask a representative from your favorite research library or genealogy society to visit:
http://www.ArchiveCDBooksUSA.com/libraries.htm
=== Free Shipping ===============================
Remember that shipping is FREE for orders of $50.00 or more at ArchiveCDBooksUSA.com! (to the U.S. and Canada. A flat rate of $4.00 applies to overseas shipments)
=== How to reach us =============================
Archive CD Books USA
9110 Red Branch Road, STE O
Columbia, Maryland 21045
410-715-2260
410-730-9734 (fax)
http://www.ArchiveCDBooksUSA.com
info@ArchiveCDBooksUSA.com
To subscribe/unsubscribe to this newsletter, please visit:
http://www.ArchiveCDBooksUSA.com/newsletter.htm
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