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In collecting materials for his landmark work on Rockbridge County, Oren F. Morton visited every judicial district in the county and examined their public records. Likewise, he examined the records of the parent counties of Orange, Augusta, and Botetourt, and followed up his exhaustive county researches with an examination of the archives of the capitol and state library in Richmond. The resulting publication, A History of Rockbridge County, is considered one of the finest county histories ever written.

Part One sketches in the history of Rockbridge from its settlement in 1737, with an appreciative eye on the pioneer element of the county--the Irish and the Scotch-Irish. Part Two is a genealogical source-book of Rockbridge County. It the author lists all the names he came upon in his researches, together with the accompanying fact in each instance. In Sections II to XIII inclusive the names are classified according to the source from which they derive. Miscellaneous facts, such as dates of birth, marriage, death, lists of children, and sundry other particulars are given in Section XIV. A complete index to the more than 15,000 names is not given for reasons that all lists are constructed in alphabetical order.There is, nonetheless, a general index to the text.