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Gen 110 Interlibrary Loan

Interlibrary Loan is a bit on an anachronism, but it still can be a great benefit when resources are not available to you locally. Most libraries do not loan out genealogy books and most archives do not loan out county microfilm. The huge and wonderful exception is the Library of Virginia, which will loan out county records on microfilm. So, if you have Virginia records you cannot get to through www.familysearch.org consider using Interlibrary Loan. The largest series of records missing from Family Search is county land taxes 1782-1850+.

First, you have to determine the Microfilm # online from http://www.lva.virginia.gov/ .

Hint: By far, the best way to find stuff on the LVA Site is to skip the fancy search screens and go to the old fashion links in their Site Map link which is located on the lower left are of their home page.

To Find Personal Tax Digests: http://www.lva.virginia.gov/public/guides/pptax.htm

To Find Land Tax Digests: http://www.lva.virginia.gov/public/guides/landtax.asp

To Find County Records: http://www.lva.virginia.gov/public/local/

No, this still may not be easy. You have to find a local library or university that has a microfilm reader, better yet a microfilm reader with a copier attached, and even better yet a microfilm reader with a scanner attached where you can download records to a thumb drive and take them home.

Some libraries charge postage. others are free.

Hint: If your county library will not work, try an adjacent county and see if you can purchase a non-resident library card.

Happy library hunting.

So, now you have found a library that has a proper microfilm reader. Go to the Reference Department and ask how to request Interlibrary Loan. Most often they will want you to fill out an online form, which is not designed for county records on microfilm. See if you can get their email address and send them a custom email in the following format:

[Your name and address]

[Your Phone #]

[Your email address]

[Library System] Card # [Your Card Number]

These are available ONLY from Library of Virginia

Microfilm from Library of Virginia

Reel

[County 1]

[#]

[Title including Years]

[#]

[Title including Years]

[#]

[Title including Years]

Reel

[County 2]

[#]

[Title including Years]

[#]

[Title including Years]

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