I went to the Rootsweb message board to respond to the original message on this subject by cac@ntelos.net, only to find that the message had been deleted, and I suspect for good reason. A sensible discussion of a topic is one thing, but when families are slandered by naming names based on nothing more than wild imagination, and certainly not on facts, it goes over the top. And yes, the old Russell courthouse did burn in 1872, but I was not around to witness what records were destroyed, and neither was cac@ntelos.net. cac@ntelos.net wrote:This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/ABC.2ACE/3785 Message Board Post: I Know many of you have seen my posts on this subject before but I can't stress it's importance enough. I'm doing this to sound mean, negative, or slanderous against certain people I'm just stating what many in fact believe to be the truth. I have often been scoffed for being a truth teller. lol I have been doing genealogy for about 12 years now and I've come to about 3 or 4 brick walls that I can't blast through, climb over , etc. About 100 years ago, the first marriage book of Russell County VA, was stolen from the courthouse records room. Along with the first Will Book. This marriage book covers the years (1786-1852). There are 65 years worth of priceless history that has been lost to this county because of greed of a single person (and/or) group. There was a cover story started that a fire consumed the book which was an outright lie and propostrous because there are no records of a fire and only "certain" records turned up missing. A fire doesn't pick and chose what it destroys. Many people within politics of yesterday and today have tried to make excuses and pass it off but I know what happened. A clerk or someone that was friendly with an EXTREMELY influential and wealthy Russell County family had these taken out to avoid public embarrassment of what some records held. Now some have hinted to the Stuart Dynasty but I can't be for certain. By the early 1900s. the Dickensons weren't what they used to be and I really don't know what family would have had such total and absolute control over the county in the late 1800s and early 1900s besides the Stuarts. I don't know the details but I do know that there is concrete belief that the marriage book and first Will book (1786-1803) is still in the family mansion of whatever family had this done. I'm not saying either way who I think it is because actually I have not the foggiest but I know one thing is for certain. With the prominence of the Stuart family at one time they would have DEFINITELY known the whereabouts of those books. And more specificly who perpetrated the crime. Problem is, Russell County is still so tight lipped and politics driven that these old secret mysteries of the elders of the county are being protected for some stupid reason. I see it as a major devastating blow to anyone trying to research their early Russell County heritage. If a normal person would have stolen this stuff it would have definitely meant prison time. BUT we are talking about people for which man's law does not apply, the super elite. Many could speculate or theorize as to what would be in the records that a high ranking publich official wouldn't want the rest of the peasants to see, but one this is for certain and that is that there are more people at the bottom than there are at the top. Now it's completely possible that by now the books could be rotted beyond repair to the point to where they're just old trash. But for some reason I don't tend think that. I've always had a pretty good keen sense for what this county is like and I've never been wrong yet. I wish that if anyone that had any descency in them whatsoever that really knew where they still are to give em back to the public. Until this silly ridiculous game of "see what I can do because my granddaddy owned the county...blah blah" we can never get past those stumbling blocks. Maybe one day the evil that had this done will cease and the records that really belog to to the public will back where they belong. If I offended anyone in high places within the county then I'm sure if you go to church and repent you'll be forgiven for taking up for these criminals that carried out the single worst terrorist attack against Russell County genealogy since the foundation of our region. Just an observation from a concerned Russell Co. genealogist ==== VARUSSEL Mailing List ==== To unsubscribe to the list send an email from the email address you wish to have unsubscribed to: VARUSSEL-L-request@rootsweb.com that contains the word "unsubscribe" (without quotes) in the body of the message and nothing else. If you are subscribed to the digest mode rather then the list mode send this message to VARUSSEL-D-request@rootsweb.com