Charles,

I was glad to be help you with your search, and to share with you the some of the informtion that was compiled by Mr. Harris, whose assistance to me was invaluable. The surname MARTIN is one of the families that is listed in the John Harris Family File Collection, so be sure to contact the Bassett Historical Center.

http://www.brrl.lib.va.us/harris2.htm

I was glad to see that you have been researching for 11 years, although you had just begun your MARTIN search. So you know at this point you have to try to recreate the Phillip & America Martin family after slavery in order to best identify who the slave owner was prior to 1865. Once you have identified "possible" slave owners you will have to research them as hard as you research your own family.

The Library of Virginia (LVA) has quite a bit of information on Henry County. Virginia began keeping birth and death registers in 1853 and continued until 1896 then there was a 16 year gap and they picked up again in 1912 (independent cities did keep records for that 16 gap year period although not all are complete). This is a link to the LVA info on Henry, the birth and death records for the period 1853 to 1896 for Henry County are not complete.

http://www.lva.virginia.gov/public/local/results_all.asp?CountyID=VA127#MAR

I have also used the County Court Order Books to gather information they are quite good, and indexed.

I will be going thru some of my other material over the next couple of days and will let you know what I find.

Selma

P.S. I have met a number of AAHGS members from Mass. at the National AAHGS Conference in MD/DC