THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, August 1, 1996 TAG: 9607300110
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JOAN C. STANUS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 68 lines
Nellie White has scoured book stores, checked with childhood friends and fellow genealogists, and even placed a classified ad in the newspaper.
She just can't find that old book anywhere.
``I've tried everybody in town,'' said White, an 80-year-old Larchmont native. ``You would think there'd still be one around that someone doesn't want. But the only way I'll probably find one is if somebody moves or is getting rid of some old books. It would just be luck to find one.''
An avid collector of books on local history, White has searched for years trying to secure a copy of a 1902 book on early Norfolk organizations and residents. Titled ``History of Norfolk County, Va., and Representative Citizens, 1600-1900,'' the work was edited and compiled by Col. William Stewart. It was published by Biographical Publishing Co. of Chicago.
White suspects there was only one printing of the work.
From her search, White has located only three copies locally. Two are owned by private collectors, both of whom are amateur genealogists like White. The other edition she has located is part of the Sargeant Memorial Room collection at the Kirn Memorial Library downtown.
``That one's in pretty bad shape,'' White said. ``So many people have used it over the years. All the pages are worn ... and coming apart.''
Although she periodically consults the public library copy in her work tracing the ancestry of her family as well as her late husband's, White yearns for a copy of the book to call her own.
``It's got so much about Norfolk and its old families,'' she explained. ``It's got chapters on the organizations of old Norfolk County, military records, listings of men in government service, church information, ferry schedules. ... It's a good source to have.''
White is so eager to have a copy, she's even willing to pay for a reprinting. But she admits few publishers would be interested in undertaking such a costly venture.
``I guess they wouldn't make much money,'' she said. ``Not many people are familiar with the book unless they use it like I do.''
Meticulously organized, White has compiled at least 20 bound notebooks and hundreds of stacked note cards, filled with handwritten information about her family, some of whom were the earliest inhabitants of Norfolk. On her mother's side, she is descended from the Lamberts of Lamberts Point. Several of her relatives are buried in a private graveyard in Larchmont near the site of the family's old home place.
The search for her roots has taken White to Franklin County, Va.; Currituck County, N.C.; Knotts Island, the Outer Banks of North Carolina, and the former Princess Anne County, which today is Virginia Beach. She has spent hour upon hour scouring birth and death certificates, centuries-old census records, marriage licenses, gravestones, local histories and court documents in search of information during the last 20 years. She also has amassed hundreds of books on the history of Virginia and its various localities, including several published more than 100 years ago. She has some 16 books on Norfolk alone.
``You just have to do so much research,'' White noted. ``But I just love old books.''
Stacks after stacks, in room after room of her Larchmont home - where she has resided for the last 73 years - attest to her hobby. In addition to local histories, she also collects old children's books, cookbooks and other works.
Over the years, she also has amassed sizable collections of china, videotapes, newspaper clippings and other keepsakes.
But during the last three years, she has focused diligently on completing her family tree. It's a legacy she wants to leave to her daughter and grandchildren.
``It's such a curiosity for me, a hobby,'' she said. ``I got started late in life. I didn't ask my mother and father much ... so I've had to do a whole lot of digging. I've found if you don't write things down, people forget about it. I don't want that to happen after I'm gone.'' by CNB