Eastern Shore of Virginia Heritage Center

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Visit the “largest and best organized collection of material relating to the history, genealogy, and culture of the Eastern Shore of Virginia.” Highlights include Native American history resources, African American history, the Miles Files, and finding aids, There’s a lot more!

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“City of Dreams: The Atlantic City Experience”

Bacharach Giants of Atlantic City, New Jersey was a Negro Baseball League team active from 1916-1929. This image is among those featured in the new digital repository “City of Dreams: The Atlantic City Experience” which opens Monday, October 17, 2022.

“Beginning in the 1870s, African-Americans were attracted in significant numbers to fill hotel recreation jobs in Atlantic City. By the late 1800s, 95% of the hotel workforce was African-Americans. By 1915, they represented 27% of the population that resided on the “other side of the track” which was also known as ‘The Northside.'” Click here for the entire article on the library’s website.

The Atlantic City Free Public Library has digitized its collection about the African-American community. The digitial repository “City of Dreams: The Atlantic City Experience” will be available to the public beginning Monday, October 17, 2022 at the library website and The Atlantic City Experience website. An in-person event is scheduled from 1-3 p.m. at the Stockton University Atlantic City campus in the Fannie Lou Hamer Event Room.

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Free Digital Court Records in Southampton County, Virginia

The Brantley Association of American organized a volunteer effort called “The Southampton Project” to digitize and create indexes for the entire collection of Southampton County courthouse records. This free website includes images and indexes to Court Order Books, 1749 – 1881; Court Minute Books, 1749 – 1861; Marriage Records, 1750 – 1890; Deed Books, 1749 – 1881; Will Books, 1749 – 1881; and Miscellaneous Books.

I scrolled down the list of courthouse records and randomly selected Southampton County, Virginia, Marriage Book 6, 1886 – 1890.  I clicked on “View” to get to the index i.e. the list of names in that volume. The 14-page index downloaded quickly. A note on the first page stated “African persons are identified by (+) sign.” I found three names: Jacob Sugars, Eveline Sugars, and Pattie Sugars on page 11. Each entry included a (+) sign; each name was followed by the number “249.”

I returned to the list of courthouse records, scrolled to Marriage Book 6, and clicked on “View” to look at the gallery of images. The first page of the gallery displayed about 100 images. I clicked “Next” at the top of the page until I got to “Page 3 of 6.” I found the image for “Pg 249” on that page and clicked on the icon. The document included more information about Jacob Sugars and his family in “Marriage License, John Henry Branch & Pattie Sugars, 19 December 1887.” The top half of the marriage license is to the right. Follow these steps to see the entire document.

Tip: I wasn’t sure if the year was “1887” or 1889″ so I looked at marriage licenses before and after the Branch-Sugars document and determined the year was “1887.”

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