News & Events

NED IRWIN IS RETIRING AS COUNTY ARCHIVIST

Ned

Ned Irwin is retiring as the first County Archivist and Records Manager for Washington County effective January 17^th, 2025. With the help of many wonderful people, Irwin established the Department of Records Management and Archives in 2012. Here he cares for the oldest public records in the state of Tennessee.

A native of Jonesborough, Ned’s love of history was influenced by his grandmother, who told him stories of her two grandfathers, who fought on opposite sides in the Civil War. Growing up in Tennessee’s oldest town, filled with so much history, also influenced his eventual career direction.

Ned graduated from East Tennessee State University with a degree in history and journalism. He began work as a newspaper reporter and editor, then went back to school and changed his career path when he obtained a master’s degree in library science with a focus on archives and records management from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. Subsequently, he completed a course in the subject at the University of Oxford. He was a charter member of the Academy of Certified Archivists and is a past present of the Society of Tennessee Archivists.

He began his career as an intern and then volunteer at the McClung Historical Collection in Knoxville. Thereafter, he served as Special Collections Librarian and Archivist at the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Public Library and was University Archivist in the Archives of Appalachia at ETSU. He left there after 18 years to establish the Washington County Archives. As he notes, it is very rare in life to get the opportunity to start something from scratch. This he did in developing the county archives. When he retires, Ned will complete 38 years in the archive field.

Ned has published numerous articles on archive and history topics, as well as authoring the book The Last Empire Builder: A Life of George L. Carter, 1857-1936, a biography of the noted Appalachian entrepreneur. For his work, he has received the McClung Award from the East Tennessee Historical Society and the Samuel Cole Williams Award from the Washington County Historical Association.

Asked about his legacy, Ned says he likes the epitaph in St. Paul’s Cathedral in London of Sir Christopher Wren, its’ architect: “If you seek his monument, look around you.” The archives may not be St. Paul’s, but Ned thinks it is pretty special.

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ALL COUNTY TAX LISTS NOW AVAILABLE ONLINE

While early tax lists before 1800 have been available in digital form on our webpage for some time, tax lists for later years were not available online. Now researchers have access to digital copies of all surviving loose tax lists for Washington County. There is a total of 392 tax lists covering the period 1778-1882. Please note that there are gaps in coverage for lists that have not survived.

These tax lists can be invaluable to researchers, as the lists provide names of thousands of individuals residing in Washington County for periods in which no census records are available. The tax lists vary from year to year as to the information provided, as this changed with changes in the law. Generally, the records list the individual’s name, the number of white polls, the number of black polls, acreage owned, and the tax. For some years, additional information may include type and number of livestock (horses, cattle, etc.); cash held; etc.

Peggy Dougherty, our long-distance volunteer, is busy transcribing the sometimes difficult to decipher handwritten pre-1800 tax lists. As she completes a list, it is added to the website. So, check back on occasion to find the newest transcriptions that might help you in researching your ancestors.

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DIGITAL VERSION OF DEED BOOK A, TENNESSEE’S FIRST VOLUME OF LAND RECORDS, IS NOW AVAILABLE TO RESEARCHERS ONLINE

The oldest land records for the state of Tennessee appear in Washington County’s Deed Book A. And these records are now available in digital form on the department’s website. A corresponding detailed index to the 504-page volume is also available to aid researchers.
The records go back in 1775 when the settlers of the Watauga Association and the Nolichucky settlement signed a deed with the Cherokee chiefs for the purchase of the land in northeast Tennessee (then part of North Carolina) on March 19^th and March 25^th at Sycamore Shoals. For that reason, the book was known for many years as the “Watauga Purchase” book rather than the correct title of Deed Book A.
The volume contains the indentures (or deeds) between the settlers and the Cherokee chiefs, as well as subsequent deeds made to the settlers by Charles Robertson, trustee for the Watauga Association, and Jacob Brown, on behalf of the Nolichucky settlement. Also included are land patents and land grants issued by the state of North Carolina. In total, the land records cover the period 1775-1782.
Deed Book A was sent to Nashville as an exhibit from Washington County for Tennessee’s centennial celebration held in 1897. It was never returned. Various efforts were made over the years to secure its’ return. Local historian Mary Hardin McCown, while a member of the Tennessee Historical Commission, made a special effort in the 1970s but failed. She did manage to obtain a poor quality photostatic copy done from microfilm. When Ned Irwin became county archivist in 2012, he began a renewed effort to recover the county’s book. Nearly a decade of effort and the assistance of many people followed. Finally, on June 1^st, 2021, Governor Bill Lee returned Deed Book A to Jonesborough in an event celebrating both the book’s return and the 225^th anniversary of Tennessee statehood. It has been great to have the book come home.
As important as the book’s return was, it is equally important that it is made available to the world. We thank Britney Helton, archive associate, for the months-long effort to scan and digitize the volume and thank Carolyn Andrews, archives’ volunteer, for compiling the detailed index.
We hope you enjoy this view into history.
You can view Deed Book A and its Index by visiting the Digital Collections tab or by clicking here.

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MASSIVE MARRIAGE LICENSE INDEX IS NOW AVAILABLE ONLINE

Ever wonder how many people have been married in Washington County? Now we know, at least the number of marriages during the first 202 years of the county’s history. It’s an amazing 107,725!
Associate Archivist Britney Helton recently completing compiling a massive index to all the surviving marriage licenses issued by the County Clerk of Washington County from 1778 through 1980. It was a year-long effort, the project beginning in May 2023 and finishing in May 2024. The marriage license index is now available to researchers online via the Internet on the department’s website (url: www.wctnarchives.org.) The project also involved processing loose marriage licenses from 1975-1980 to join the earlier licenses and bonds already in the archive.
The index information includes the names of the bride and groom and the date of the marriage. Names can be found either way. The actual marriages licenses can be viewed in the archives by researchers. Additional information found there and not included in the index would be the date the license was issued and the name of the person who performed the marriage ceremony. Sometimes the actual location of the wedding is also given. Many marriage bonds are also included in the collection providing names of individuals who signed the bond. This is sometimes helpful to researchers, as it was often a parent, other relative, or a neighbor or friend, who posted the bond.
Marriage license books are also found in the department up through October 2001. After that date, the license information began to be kept digitally. Loose marriage licenses after 1980 remain in the County Clerk’s office at the courthouse in downtown Jonesborough.

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