Freedmen's Co-Habitation Records - Rockbridge County

Larry Spurgeon (2020)

Enslaved people could not marry under Virginia law, though they often were married through custom and ceremonies. After emancipation in 1865, the United States Freedmen's Bureau encouraged formerly enslaved people to register their relationships, to formalize their marriages. The Rockbridge registrations were in 1866 and 1867, and the entries identify both spouses, their ages and places of birth, how long they had been a couple, and the names and ages of their children.