The Eastern Shore of Virginia has a number of helpful research repositories for those studying the past and one of those is the Eastern Shore Public Library. It’s about halfway down the Peninsula, between the State Line and the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, in the county seat town of Accomac. This regional system, serving Accomack and Northampton counties, has a strong local history research collection.
Over the decades, I have stopped there a few times to use the Eastern Shore Room, and as I spent part of a day working there this past week, I was reminded of the value of this public institution. The headquarters library has the largest group of the Shore’s published works in any public repository. In addition, there are strong, easily accessible holdings of newspapers on microfilm. The published titles originated in Accomac, Cape Charles, Chincoteague, Eastville, Exmore, Onancock, Onley, and Tasley. Couple these resources and the microfilm reels of court records with the extremely knowledgeable staff and you have the perfect place for someone inquiring about regional genealogy or history to do a little digging in the sources.
Here is a link to the Eastern Shore Room at the library, where you will find a number of e-resources.
