Augusta County Circuit Court enters partnership with JMU

STAUNTON, Va. (WHSV) - Augusta County Clerk of Circuit Court R. Steven Landes announced today that his office has entered a partnership with the James Madison University’s Department of History and the JMU Libraries to support the Histories along the Blue Ridge project.

Histories along the Blue Ridge is a project and website that makes selected historic records digitally available to the public.

“We are very excited to announce this important partnership between the Clerk’s Office, the JMU Department of History, and JMU Libraries,” Landes said. “As we work to conserve and preserve Augusta County’s significant historic records, we look forward to hosting a JMU History Department graduate student to continue that process and expand our work identifying and digitizing these historic records.”

“The Department of History is very excited for this partnership with the Augusta County Circuit Court Clerk’s Office. Augusta County at one time encompassed a vast amount of land and the Clerk’s Office still holds a trove of important historical records,” said Dr. Kevin Borg, JMU Director of Public History Program. “It will be a great educational experience for our graduate students, while making these records available for the public.”

Histories along the Blue Ridge is the new name for Exploring Rockingham’s Past, a project launched in 2017-2018 to make selected historic records from the Rockingham County Circuit Court digitally available to the public. Keeping with the original project mission, each year, graduate students from JMU partnered with local Rockingham Circuit Court Clerk, Chaz Haywood, to make select collections digitally available.

Future initiatives will also add select, non-court records to the Histories along the Blue Ridge collection as well.

The Histories along the Blue Ridge website can be found online at https://omeka.lib.jmu.edu/erp/.