A Guide to the Pulaski County (Va.) Register of Convicts, 1872-1926 Pulaski County (Va.) Register of Convicts, 1872-1926 Barcode number 1185270/Pulaski County (Va.) Reel 17

A Guide to the Pulaski County (Va.) Register of Convicts, 1872-1926

A Collection in
the Library of Virginia
Collection numbers: Barcode number 1185270/Pulaski County (Va.) Reel 17


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Repository
The Library of Virginia
Collection numbers
Barcode number 1185270/Pulaski County (Va.) Reel 17
Title
Pulaski County (Va.) Register of Convicts, 1872-1926
Physical Characteristics
1 v. (11 leaves); 1 microfilm reel
Collector
Pulaski County (Va.) Circuit Court.
Location
State Records Center - Archives Annex, Library of Virginia
Language
English

Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Use Restrictions

Use microfilm copy, Pulaski County (Va.) Reel 17.

Preferred Citation

Pulaski County (Va.) Register of Convicts, 1872-1926. Pulaski County (Va.) Reel 17, Local government records collection, Pulaski County Court Records. The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia 23219.

Acquisition Information

The original volume came to the Library of Virginia in a transfer of court papers from Pulaski County under the accession number 43684.

Reel 17 was generated by a field operator, from the Virginia State Library's (now the Library of Virginia) Microfilm Section, while filming in the Circuit Court Clerk's Office.

Historical Information

Pulaski County was formed from Montgomery and Wythe Counties in 1839. Part of Wythe County was added to Pulaski on 31 March 1862.

Pulaski County was named for Count Casimir Pulaski, the Polish patriot who served in the American army during the Revolutionary War and who was killed during the siege of Savannah in 1779.

During the 1869-1870 session, the General Assembly passed an "Act to Secure Identification of Persons Convicted of Criminal Offences." On 2 November 1870, the act was approved. The act specified that "every clerk of the court of each county and corporation shall keep a register of full and accurate descriptive lists of every person convicted in his own or any other court of record of his county or corporation, of felony or other infamous offence, and a duly certified and attested copy of any such descriptive list may be used as prima facie evidence of the facts therein stated in any question of identity. Such registers shall be kept written up, well indexed, and shall be open to public inspection at reasonable hours. The register shall follow a set form and each descriptive list shall be attested by said clerk."

In addition, "the clerk of every court of record of each county or corporation, other than the county or corporation court, shall within ten days from the date of conviction of any person in his court of any offence mentioned in the first section of this act, deliver to the clerk of the county or corporation court, for record in said register, an attested descriptive list of the person so convicted, in the form hereinbefore prescribed." The judges of the respective courts are responsible for seeing that the provisions of the act are "punctually and properly carried out" by their respective clerks. The act was amended on 18 January 1871 and outlined the following: "For the services mentioned in this or the first section of this act, the clerk shall be entitled to a fee of fifty cents, to be paid out of the state treasury." By and large, the county and circuit court clerks went about compiling these registers throughout the counties of Virginia as late as the 1960s.

Order/Minute books record all matters brought before the court when it was in session and may contain important information not found anywhere else. A wide variety of information is found in order/mintute books--including individuals convicted of felonies.

The original register was created by the County Court until 1904. After this date, felonies were recorded in the Circuit Court.

Scope and Content

Pulaski County (Va.) Register of Convicts, 1872-1926, is a "descriptive list of persons convicted of felony, or other infamous offences, in the County Court of Pulaski, Va. since November 2nd, 1870." Based on a form, the listings of each conviction include the individual's name in full and any aliases, the present and last known residence of the accused, the color or race of the individual (including black, white, mulatto, colored, yellow, brown, ginger, etc.), the individual's height, eye color, hair color and any identifying marks, the apparent or known age of the accused, his or her occupation, the offence, the court in which convicted, the date of conviction and page of record and whether the judgment was reversed or pardon granted and date thereof. There are no convictions listed for 1873-1874, 1880, 1883, 1903, 1906, 1908, 1918-1921 and 1923-1924. The volume has an internal index. The index is arranged alphabetically by the surname of the convict in the order that it appears in the volume.

Arrangement

Arranged chronologically.

Related Material

This volume is located at the State Records Center. Contact Archives Research Services for access information, directions and hours.

Additional Pulaski County Court Records can be found on microfilm at the Library of Virginia. Consult "A Guide to Virginia County and City Records on Microfilm."

Index Terms

    Corporate Names:

  • Pulaski County (Va.) Circuit Court.
  • Subjects:

  • African American prisoners--Virginia--Pulaski County.
  • African Americans--Employment--Virginia--Pulaski County.
  • African Americans--History--1863-1877.
  • African Americans--History--1877-1964.
  • African Americans--Virginia--Pulaski County.
  • Occupations--Virginia--Pulaski County.
  • Prisoners--Virginia--Pulaski County.
  • Public records--Virginia--Pulaski County.
  • Racially mixed people--Virginia--Pulaski County.
  • Geographical Names:

  • Pulaski County (Va.)--History.
  • Genre and Form Terms:

  • Criminal court records--Virginia--Pulaski County.
  • Local government records--Virginia--Pulaski County.
  • Order books--Virginia--Pulaski County.
  • Registers (lists)--Virginia--Pulaski County..
  • Added Entry - Corporate Name:

  • Pulaski County (Va.) County Court.