Series 1. Family files, 1944-1963.

Containers:

Box 1-8

Scope and content:

Files on families or groups of families being researched by professional genealogist Eva Eubank Wilkerson (1884-1965). Files consist chiefly of Wilkerson's research notes, and often include letters from the client requesting the information. Some of the resources Wilkerson frequently consulted in her research include primary sources such as wills, deeds, and marriage records, and miscellaneous reference works; much of the material in her notes is quoted directly from these sources. As Wilkerson did not keep copies of her actual responses to clients, the information collected here is entirely in note form and consequently can be difficult to use. Miscellaneous research notes on scattered families and topics including Bladensfield Plantation in Richmond County, Virginia, and Goode's Bridge in Chesterfield County are filed at the end of the series.

Arrangement:

Wilkerson sometimes recorded notes about several families on the same set of papers or in the same notebook. Often, the various families are related. In other cases, they are found together only because Wilkerson was working on more than one project at a time. The original groupings have been maintained, and labeled according to the names contained therein (e.g. "Howell-Brown-Lewis-Willis"). The order of names in a grouping's label is typically determined by their order of appearance in the notes or correspondence. The groupings are then filed alphabetically by the first name in the label (Howell, in this example). Therefore, not all family names can be located by scanning the file names alphabetically (e.g., Brown, Lewis, and Willis are filed under Howell in the H's). This being the case, patrons are encouraged to use the "Ctrl+F" (Find) function to do a keyword search for names, in case they are not listed in alphabetical order. The names in parentheses listed after some of the file groupings are those of the clients requesting the research.

Access and use

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