Chap. 50.—An ACT to provide for the restoration of certain recoras
in the clerk’s office of the county court of Rockingham county.

Approved November 18, 1884.

Whereas the records of the clerk’s office of the county
court of Rockingham county, were partially destroyed duting
the late war, and it is highly important that they shall be
restored so far as practicable:

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That
the clerk of the county court of Rockingham, be and ho is
hereby authorized and required with the approval of the
judge of the said court, to employ a deputy clerk, who shall
proceed at once to restore so far as practicable, the record of
the deeds, wills, and such other records as may be ordered by
the judge of the county court of Rockingham, recorded in
said office prior to the fourth day of June, eighteen hundred
and sixty-four, and to this end, the said clerk shall be author-
ized and empowered to contract to pay the said deputy
employed by him for this purpose, at a salary not exceeding
seventy-five dollars per month, and to purchase all books and
stationery necessary for the work, and the expenses of this
work shall be provided for and paid out of the county levy
of said county.

2. The said clerk shall require his said deputy to re-record
all the deeds, wills, and other writings, together with the
certificates thereon, admitted to record in the deed books, will
books, and other proper books of his office, prior to the fourth
day of June, eighteen hundred and sixty-four, beginning with
the first recorded and coming down in the same order in
which they were first recorded. If in any case the original
record is destroyed in whole or in part, he shall, if practica-
ble, obtain the original deed, or will, or writing, and certifi-
cate, and record them; and if that cannot be done, then he
shall record any certified copy of the original deed, will, or
writing which he can conveniently obtain, or which may be
furnished to him; and if neither the original deed, will, or
writing recorded, nor a certified copy thereof, can be obtained,
then he shall record so much of the original record thereof
as may remain; and if it 1s wholly lost, he shall make a
memorandum to that effect, and in each case he shall by

roper certificate show the exact nature of what is recorded

him. }

3. No original deed or writing now on file in the said
clerk’s office, which was admitted to record prior to the
fourth of June, eighteen hundred and sixty-four, shall be
withdrawn from the office until re-recorded, or a certified copy
thereof shall have been made for recordation under the pro-
visions of this act.

4, If any of the deeds, wills, or writings recorded in said
office, prior to June fourth, eighteen hundred and sixty-four,
have been since that date recorded again, a memorandum to
that effect, giving the number of the book and page, and
date of such recordation, shall be entered in the place of said
deed or writing at the place it would have occupied in the
restored record. ,

5. A complete index of all the deeds, wills, and other wri-
tings, recorded in the said office prior to June fourth, eigh-
teen hundred and sixty-four, shall be made; which shall show
in regard to each deed, by proper sign or letter, whether the
record thereof has been restored in full or in part, or has
been entirely lost. In making this index, the said deputy
clerk may refer to the minutes of the county court of said
county and such other records of the office still remaining as
will give information necessary for completing said index.

6.- All of these restored records and certified copies thereof,
shall be received in evidence by all the courts of this com-
monwealth, and shall be entitled to the same weight and
effect as the original records, so far as they are restored.

7. This act shall be in force from its passage.