Why the paper trail is thin: Rountree's testimony (U.S. House, 18 Apr. 2007)
Record: the document says itPattern: documents line upLens: our readingOpen: not yet proven
Year: 2007 · Places: Virginia, Northeast, Europe
SUMMARYWhy the paper trail is thin: Rountree's testimony (U.S. House, 18 Apr. 2007) [Connections: Virginia & Eastern Shore, Nov 5, 2026]
RECORDHelen C. Rountree (Old Dominion University) told the House Natural Resources Committee: "If you were poor and law-abiding, you were invisible." She also said "Several of the key courthouses were burned in the 19th century," census takers "did not record the names of family members – only the heads of household – until 1850," and the Vital Statistics Bureau acted as "a policing agency on matters racial." Under the 1920s law, "anyone insisting upon the 'Indian' label in Virginia could legally be sent to jail."
PATTERNA leading scholar explains why "no record" often means the record was erased or never kept
LENS (WW9)A gap in the archive is not proof the people were absent
OPENHer book Eastern Shore Indians of Virginia and Maryland (with Davidson, 1997) has the Gingaskin land map and names. Get a copy