The Cohabitation Records, offically titled, "Register of Colored Persons, Augusta County, State of Virginia, Cohabiting Together as Husband and Wife," are a record of free African-American families living in Augusta County in 1866. The records were created by the Freedmen's Bureau in an effort to document the marriages of formerly enslaved men and women that were legally recognized by an act of the Virginia Assembly in February 1866. In the coming months, these records will be available in their entirety in a searchable database. In the meantime, click here to view a sample page from the cohabitation records.
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