Page:A Guide to the Preparation of County Road Histories.pdf/15

 that side. As it was, a fairly accurate developmental map of Albemarle could be sketched, the principal error contained in the first effort being the omission of that portion of early Albemarle lying to the south of the James River from the head of the Appomattox River to the Blue Ridge.

Once the basic provenance chart and a developmental map have been prepared, a detailed survey of the information sources still available to the researchers can be begun. This can, and probably should be, as detailed as possible, and list all the records available for the subject county. The survey should be accomplished by as many visits as are necessary to the county courthouse, the Virginia State Library, and any other repositories of relevant information. All of these sources should be listed on the provenance chart. Details concerning the condition of the records, discontinuous coverage or whatever else is of importance may also be entered.

Although Figure 2 is detailed for only Albemarle County, more serious students of road history will probably wish at this stage to visit the antecedent or parent counties, and those counties adjacent, and to enter on the chart similar information regarding them since it may also ultimately prove necessary to make a detailed examination of the records of those counties. Obviously a provenance chart can be as complete or as elemental as the researcher wishes to make it, but it is wise to construct a fairly comprehensive document at the survey stage of the project. Much time will be saved as the work progresses if a copy of this chart is placed in the hands of each of the researchers and kept always at hand. Just what this chart will contain when completed will probably vary from county to county according to the completeness and the condition of their records, as well as the time period the study will cover. Order books, minute books, road surveyors records, road commission records, and surveyors books could be enumerated, along with the printed Acts of Assembly and those of the Board of Public Works. Vestry books are valuable sources down to the time of the disestablishment of the church, at which time the vestries lost their character as quasi-political bodies. Whether available in printed form, on microfilm at the Virginia State Library, or occasionally still residing at the county clerk's office or elsewhere locally, they should also be entered on the provenance chart.

Beyond those sources roughly categorised as public records, a bibliography consisting of county histories, memoirs, and related works dealing with the area might be compiled and kept with the provenance chart, perhaps on the back of each copy for ready reference. Such early maps as exist for the area should also be listed and copies secured if possible from the holding agencies such as the Virginia Historical Society, Virginia State Library, and the Library of Congress. If this is not possible, then the holding agency or the nearest location where a copy can be consulted should be listed. [Library of Congress, 1967] will list most (but probably not all) of the Virginia county maps of the nineteenth century, including those done by the Confederate Engineers in 1863 and 1864. (See Figure 7). – 9 –