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Norfolk County (Va.) Free Negro Registers, 1809-1861. Norfolk County (Va.) Reels 105 and 133, Local government records collection, Chesapeake (City)/Norfolk County Court Records. The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Va. 23219.
These items were microfilmed 12 Jan. 1975 by the Library of Virginia's Imaging Services Division.
Norfolk County (extinct) probably was named by Adam Thoroughgood, a local resident, for his native county in England. It was formed from Lower Norfolk County in 1691. Norfolk County became extinct in 1963, when it was consolidated with the city of South Norfolk to form the city of Chesapeake. The county seat was Portsmouth.
Acts passed by the Virginia legislature in 1793 and 1803 required every free negro or mulatto to be registered and numbered in a book to be kept by the county clerk.
Norfolk County (Va.) Free Negro Registers, 1809-1861. The collection contains a Register of Free Negroes and Mulattoes, 1809-1852 (Reel 133) and a Register of Free Negroes, 1852-1861 (Reel 105). The registers dcoument the name, and age of free negroes who registered with the county court from 1809 to 1861. Each entry also includes a brief physicial description and a reference to whether the person was born free, and where, or the circumstances of the person's emancipation. Additional information, such as names of spouses or parents or county of birth, is sometimes included.