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Of enduring interest to the genealogist, fully two-thirds of the work is devoted to biographical and genealogical sketches of eminent citizens of the Commonwealth. The majority of Volume II, for example, however, is comprised of sketches of over a thousand prominent citizens who were alive at the time of the book's original publication and who were from the Virginia counties of Campbell, Pittsylvania, Halifax, Prince Edward, Nottoway, Dinwiddie, Nansemond, Norfolk, Elizabeth City, Warwick, Washington, and the City of Richmond. Almost all of these 19th-century luminaries are identified by date and place of birth, name of spouse and date of marriage, and the names of their children. In many cases the ancestry is traced back for several generations.