Were all the records really lost when the courthouse burned?

What the details show

The Library of Virginia sorts its lost records localities into two kinds. In a catastrophic loss, a county lost most of its loose papers and its bound books. In a considerable loss, many loose papers were destroyed but most of the volumes of deeds, wills and court orders still exist. Its notes on single counties show the pattern: one county lost everything in an 1892 fire except its land tax books; another lost its loose papers in 1888 while all its volumes were saved; in another, a fire in 1787 destroyed mainly wills and estate records.

Recovery was also common. In one Virginia county, Union troops vandalized the courthouse in 1863 and 1864 and Deed Book A was destroyed, yet deeds recorded before the war were entered again in Deed Books B and C. In another, deeds and wills from before 1865 were re-recorded after the state assembly passed an act in 1884. A re-recorded deed can sit in a book written years after the date on the deed itself, so later books are worth reading with older dates in mind.

Records that were never in the courthouse

Many records that matter to a family historian were kept somewhere else. The Library of Virginia advises looking for alternative records such as church, business, private and government documents when county books are gone. Church registers of baptisms, marriages and burials stayed with the congregation. Merchants kept account books. Families kept Bibles and letters.

Federal and state governments kept their own records of many things. In the 30 public land states, the first transfer of land from the government to a private owner is documented in land entry case files held by the National Archives, no matter what happened to the county deed books later. In the original colonies and the other states that were never federal public land, the National Archives points researchers to the state archives for land records. A county fire does not touch any of these.

How to work in a burned county

First, find out exactly what was lost and when. State archives and state libraries often publish inventories of county records, and a fire in 1865 does nothing to records created in 1870. Then list what survives: later deed books with re-recorded deeds, tax lists, court order books, and records of higher courts that may have been kept in another town. Finally, step outside the courthouse to church, federal, state and family records. A burned county is slower work, not a dead end.