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A number of relatives of the deceased were present - among them Mr. William C. Blackford, of Maryland; Pelham Blackford, of Norfolk; Mrs. Poultney, of Baltimore; L. P. Harrison of Danville; Dr. J. S. Davis, of the University of Virginia; Mrs. John B. Minor, of Charlottesville; Mrs. W. H. Blackford, of Baltimore; Miss Blackford, of Washington, and Rev. Arthur Lloyd of Norfolk.
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Genealogical Data On Blackfords Now Accessible For Research Here By Martha Rivers Adams
Genealogical and historical data pertaining to the family background of the late Capt. Charles Minor Blackford, Lynchburg lawyer and historian, and his wife, the late Susan Leigh Colston Blackford, civic and social leaders of their day, has been made accessible for research at Jones Memorial Library. Capt. and Mrs. Blackford were married in 1856 in Albermarle county and lived here, on Pearl street, thereafter.
Bound into the Blackford family Bible, the information was assembled by the late Capt. Blackford and written in long hand. How it has been made available to the public is a procedure of the library which has resulted in preservation of similar valuable local historical items without risk to the aged documents, retained in the archives for authentication of the facts.
Entries Accurate, Meticulous
Written entries have been typed and bound, meticulously and accurately by Mrs. Harry H. Skelton, assistant librarian, and are now on the shelves for the purpose of practical research. Mrs. J. Warren Dickerson, chief librarian, is concerned with the building up of items pertaining to Lynchburg, this section of the State, and to Virginia as a whole. This collection has been expanded greatly from an excellent nucleus established by the late Miss J. Maud Campbell, librarian for about 25 years.
The Blackford Bible material is source of an incredible number of local articles, dealing as it does with matteres pertinent to this section and to the State at large. Capt. Blackford's impress on public affairs is felt today, nearly 50 years after his death. The last member of his family to live in Lynchburg was the late R. Colston Blackford, Lawyer, industrialist, historian and for many years, chairman of the Lunchburg School Board.
Family histories fo the Blackfords, Colstons, Minors, Carters, Marshalls and Fishers, whose bloods are intermingled in the lineage, have been bound in the Bible along with statistical records of births, deaths and marriages. Capt. Blackford injects a note of frivolity now and then, telling about a party and who was present, following this up with footnotes showing what happened to the persons in later years.
Associated with families in the direct ancestry are others, some of them also kin to the Blackfords and Colstons, such as the Hills of Shirley, the Byrds of Westover, and the Lee, Fauntleroy, Burwell, Page, Kean (formerly of Lynchburg) and other related families.
Jones Memorial Library was given all books from Capt. Blackford's collection with his estate was settled after Colston Blackford's death. Mrs. Vance C. McCormick of Harrisburg, Pa., the former Gertrude Howard, Capt. Blackford's ward who made her home with the Blackfords during her girlhood, bought the collection and presented the books and papers to Jones Memorial Library as a memorial to their former owner.
Rich in Historical Data
From first to last, the Bible material is rich in historical data as basis for articles of public interest. Illustrative of these is the opening sketch of Raleigh Colston, Mrs. Blackford's great grandfather. The entry copied from the Colston Bible shows that representatives of the family came to (Continued on Page 8; Column 1)
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Virginia in 1640, and how this family is connected through marriage with other first families of the colonial period. Raleigh Colston declares that he had clear memory of events which happened from the time he was two years old and proceeds to recall things that happened in his early life and hence forward.
Those familiar with restoration work, such as that at Williamsburg, are cognizant of the value of family records in substantiating historical happenings, small clues assisting in the documentation required for every step. An example of such a clue is in the Colston reminiscences. Raleigh Colston recalls his early apprenticeship to James Tarpley of the mercantile firm of Tarpley, Thompson and Company, and this is one of the restored locations at Williamsburg. Young Colston's guardians were Charles Beale and Major Traverse Tarpley appointed after the death of his father, which he declares he remembered, although he was less than four years old. He read law later "with George Wythe, Esq." at Williamsburg, "to whom I was recommended by John Tayloe and Prestley Thornton, the juvenile friends of my Father" he states.
The book prepared for research at Jones Memorial Library occupies place on shelves which contain similar volumes from other sources, made available as a public service by the library.
