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Shenandoah Valley Black Heritage Project
We are proud to be the editors and publishers of Ryan's amazing book.  Please contact us for a copy.  We are asking a $15.00 donation if you are able.  robinlyttle@valleyblackheritage.org
Laten Bechtel's book signing for her amazing new book was the same night and time as Ryan Bachman's.  She has done it again.  What a wonderful book!  Thank you Laten!

The Late Barbara McSweeney remembered with us with a kind donation of many books.  They are listed below.

  • Civil War Curiosities by Webb Garrison
  • Strange True Stories of Louisiana by George W. Cable
  • Slaves In The Family by Edward Ball
  • Been In The Storm So Long by Leon F. Lotwack
  • Water From The Rock by Sylvia Frey
  • Slaves in the Will books, Augusta County, VA. 1745-1866 by the Augusta County Genealogical Society
  • In Search of the Promised Land by John Hope Franklin & Loren Schweninger
  • Before Freedom Edited by Belinda Hurmence
  • The Correspondence of W.E.B. Dubois: Vol. 1 Edited by Herbert Aptheker
  • Blood Done Sign My Name by Timothy B. Tyson
  • The Internal Enemy by Alan Taylor
  • Israel in the Appomattox by Melvin Patrick Ely
  • In Search of Selections from Freedmen's Bureau Records for Augusta County and Staunton, VA compiled by the Augusta County Genealogical Society 
  • African-American Marriage Index, 1865-1899, Augusta County, VA with notes of interest, compiled by the Augusta County Genealogical Society
  • A wonderful notebook with Barb McSweeney's personal notes and newspaper articles. 

  • The Shenandoah Valley Hit, newspaper.   We now have the Hit in print!  Dennis Jackson's newspaper is a gift to the community!  It's celebrating it's 30th year in publication!  Congrats to Dennis for decades of recording the Valley's Black History through his weekly newspaper!       Go to the Hit's website valleyhit.com/subscribe.html to subscribe.  Stay Informed!                                  
  • Mammy's Chillun and Other Poems by U. G. Wilson, Harrisonburg, Va, Copyright 1920 by U. G. Wilson                                                              
  • Historical Sketches Of African-American Churches (Past & Present) of Augusta County, Staunton, Waynesboro, & Vicinity, Including Cemetery Burial Records and Biographies, Edited and with pen & ink drawings by Joe Nutt, 2001.                                                                                                                                                            
  • The Negro Handbook, 1952; A Review of Events Affecting Negro Life,                 Jessie Parkhurst Guzman, editor; Tuskeegee Institute.                                                                          
  • Historic Houses of Augusta County, Virginia by Joe Nutt, 2007.                 
  • Historic Houses of Staunton, Virginia by Joe Nutt, 2008.                                   
  • The Other Annapolis, 1900 - 1950 by Philip L. Brown.  Copyright 1994               Annapolis is my (Robin Lyttle) hometown.  A history I sort of knew about as I grew up.  This book has shown me just what I didn't know, which was a lot.   Look around, you may find a similar book about your hometown.                                                                                                                                                                                    
  • African American Historical News Journal, 178 Years of ur Country's History as Cocumented by Historical Newspaper Articles. Published by Historical News Journals, Inc. in 2010.                                                                                                                                                                                                     
  • Black Writers, A Selection of Sketches from Contemporary Authors; copyright 1985.                            
  • Southern Sketches From Virginia, 1881 - 1901; by Orra Langhorne; copyright 1964                
  • Slaves in Will Books, Augusta County, Virginia  1745 - 1866; compiled &  Published by the August County Geneological Society,  copyright 2015.                                                                                                         
  • Back of the Big House; The Architecture of Plantation Slavery by John Michael Vlach, 1993.                                                                                                                                                                                                         
  • An Atlas of Shendoah and Page Counties, Virginia, published by D. J. Lake & Co. in 1885.   (We have a copy of the original atlas as well as a reproduction.)
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OUR LIBRARY ALSO INCLUDES:
  • United States Colored Troops; Born In Augusta, Bath, Highland And Rockbridge , Virginia  Compiled by Augusta County Genealogical Society. This is a great compilation spear headed by local historian and author, Laten Bechtel.  2014
  • Schools in New Market, Shenandoah County, Virginia, Vol. 1: 1766-1870 by local author, educator and historian, Nancy Branner Stewart.  1992
  • A Register of Free Negroes For Augusta County Court Commencing the 20th of July 1810 and ending the 4th day of January 1864 and City of Staunton Virginia commencing 25th August 1810 ending the 22nd August 1864  Copied and Edited by Katherine G. Bushman, 1989.
  • Register Of Free Blacks, Rockingham County, Virginia; 1807 - 1859; compiled by Dorothy A. Boyd-Rush
  • Anthology of Appalachian Writers, Ron Rash Volume 4,   2012
  • Two Peoples, One Community: The African American Experience in Newtown (Stephens City), Virginia, 1850 - 1870  by Jonathan A. Noyalas, 2007
  • The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man by James Weldon Johnson, 1995
  •  The African American Soldier in the Civil War, USCT 1862-66 by Mark Lardas, 2006
  • Freedom's Child, The Life of a Confederat General's Black Daughter, by Carrie Allen McCray, 1998
  • Freedom By Deed, An Index to Emancipations and Manumissions, In The Winchester And Frederick County Deed Books, 1752-1862, Abstracted and Edited by Susan L. McCabe, 2007
  • A History of Calvary Church of the Brethren by Joseph Floyd Wine, 1972
  • The Diary of Henry Saint John Rinker, His Account Of Events, Commencing January 1862 And Ending December 1867" by Daniel Warrick Burruss II and Sandra Helsey Yelton, 1999. 
  • Anderson, Andrew and Aggy; Free Black Family in Brock's Gap, 1807 - 1845   by Pat Turner Ritchie
  • Mountain Valley People by Mary Marie Koontz
  • Slavey When Humans Were Sold As Chattel by William A. Good
  • Zenda: 1869 - 1930, An African-American Community of Hope by Nancy Bondurant Jones
  • Civil War Stories, Personal Accountx from Harrisonburg and Rockingham County in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia by Rosemarie Joswick Palmer
  • History of Kelly St. UBCC, Newtown, Harrisonburg, Va., 1892 - 1906 by Ruth M. Toliver
  • Keeping Up With Yesterday by Ruth M. Toliver
  • The Way It Was not the way it is by Doris Allen
Picture
Doris Allen's memoire, "The Way It Was not the way it is" has been published and can be bought at the Red Front Grocery store on Chicago Ave. in Harrisonburg.  She will be signing and selling her books on March 14th at "Zenda's Homecoming" at the Lucy F. Simms Center.   You can contact me at lblrobin@shentel.net for her book signing schedule!

This is a wonderful book!  She reaches back in time with such vivid descriptions.  As you read you can't help but travel back in time to your childhood.  That's a blessing!

Pat Turner Ritchie of Fulks Run, Virginia



​Anderson and Aggy Anderson, Free Black Family In Brocks Gap, 1807-1845  
by Pat Turner Ritchie
This was sent to me by Rosemarie Palmer.  
Thank you, Rosemarie!

Slaves listed in 1815 & 1816 Tax Books for Rockingham County, VA

Transcribed by Dorothy A. Boyd-Rush/Boyd-Bragg

These books also available at the Harrisonburg-Rockingham Historical Society, 382 High Street, Dayton, VA 22812

[1815] Boyd-Rush, Dorothy A. "1815 Rockingham County Tax List," Magazine of Virginia Genealogy, Vol. 40, No. 2 (May 2002):89-102; Vol. 40, No. 3 (Aug. 2002):200-206; Vol. 40, No. 4 (Nov. 2002):317-326; Vol. 41, No. 1 (Feb. 2003):55-68; Vol. 41, No. 2 (May 2003):149-166; Vol. 42, No. 2 (Feb. 2005):97-104; Vol. 43, No. 1 (Feb. 2005):70-74. Available at FHL; digital version of Volume 40 at Ancestry ($).

[1815] Boyd-Bragg, Dorothy A. "A List of the Free Negroes, Rockingham County [1815]," Magazine of Virginia Genealogy, Vol. 45, No. 1 (Feb. 2007):63-64. Available at FHL.

[1816] Boyd-Bragg, Dorothy A. "Rockingham County Tax Book for the Year 1816," Magazine of Virginia Genealogy, Vol. 42, No. 3 (Aug. 2004):189-202; Vol. 42, No. 4 (Nov. 2004):265-284; Vol. 43, No. 2 (May 2005):153-168. Available at FHL. 

www.valleyblackheritage.org; Local (540 210-6499), Toll Free 1(833)317-4575, Fax (540) 540 202-4656 ; robinlyttle@valleyblackheritage.org; Mailing address: SVBHP, 425 Hill St., Harrisonburg, VA 22802
​EIN 81-1709430
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