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This is an encyclopedic listing of Virginia sources and resources for the genealogist. Ms. McGinnis devotes entire chapters to such subjects as Virginia land, people, and history; immigration and migration; vital records; Bible and church records; census records; land and court records; manuscripts and records abroad; ethnic Virginia; slavery and African-Americans; counties and their records; independent cities and their records; genealogical collections; and genealogical societies. Several sections of the book are based upon answers to questionnaires which the author sent to Virginia courthouses and historical and genealogical societies. The bibliography alone runs to 125 pages and contains references to 1,421 books and articles on all aspects of Virginia genealogy. By any measurement, this is a real giant of a book--and the standard by which all future textbooks on Virginia genealogy will be measured.


EDITORIAL REVIEWS

"While not claiming to be a comprehensive guide and bibliography to sources and resources relating to the Commonwealth, it comes close to being the book everyone would want to have close at hand. The author...has admirably pulled together the history, records, and sources to touch on the basics and, in many cases, delve a little deeper...Virginia Genealogy is an important book--one that researchers of families in the Old Dominion will want to own and use."--NATIONAL GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY QUARTERLY, Vol. 83, No. 1 (March 1995), pp. 65-67.

"...excellent book...this reference is a useful addition to the bookshelf of the Virginia researcher, whether beginner or veteran."--FEDERATION OF GENEALOGICAL SOCIETIES FORUM, Vol. 7, No. 1 (Spring 1995), p. 31.

"This is without doubt the finest reference work of its kind on records sources in Virginia...This book can be recommended without reserve to everyone who has even a slight interest in Virginia genealogical research and to all libraries with any kind of genealogical collection, however modest. If not the most valuable book of its kind published this year, it will unquestionably come close to that honor."--THE AMERICAN GENEALOGIST, Vol. 68, No. 3 (July 1993).