As you will see from this very abridged bio, Mr. Headley is not someone who does things halfheartedly!

“Robert Headley was born in a small town on the Northern Neck of Virginia in 1938. He received his B. A. degree in anthropology from the University of Florida and his M.A. in Anthropology and Ph. D. in Celtic languages from Catholic University in Washington, D.C. Dr. Headley worked as a research linguist for the United States Government from 1959 to 1995 and has published numerous books and articles on Southeast Asian languages as well as the major Cambodian – English dictionary. He became interested in documenting the history of the rapidly disappearing American movie theaters in 1968, and after six years of research published a book, EXIT, on the history of movie theaters in Baltimore.  In September 1999, EXIT was selected by the Enoch Pratt Free Library Staff as one of the Best Books on Maryland of the 20th Century. He was a member of the Theatre Historical Society of America and served as editor for the society’s journal, Marquee, from 1981 to 1987. Dr. Headley has lectured on local theater history at the National Archives and Johns Hopkins University, He has also served as a consultant for several exhibitions and documentary films on movie theaters including “The Movie Palaces” made by the Smithsonian Institution.  This research has culminated in a book, Motion Picture Exhibition in Washington, D.C., which traces the history of motion picture exhibition in Washington and adjacent Maryland and Virginia from the 1890s to the 1990s. Dr. Headley has added numerous anecdotes gleaned from  oral history interviews with over 40 individuals who were associated with the local movie industry between 1906 and 1990. 

His hobbies include going to movies, collecting minerals, and writing on the genealogy and local history of the Northern Neck of Virginia. He has authored three earlier books on Virginia genealogy. He was on the staff of the University of Maryland Archives, College Park, Maryland from 2003 to 2013. He is currently compiling a dictionary of the Rhade language of Vietnam.”

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In addition to nearly 500 pages of record abstracts themselves, the front matter and appendices to Northern Neck Wills, Inventories & Other Records, 1800-1825 convey much about the historical idiosyncrasies of the records and Northern Neck research itself. For example, as excerpted below, Mr. Headley’s introduction illustrates each kind of record group and how matters of inheritance altered the course of events in people’s lives. The appendices are equally interesting. One discusses the major Virginia statutes affecting estates. Another collects the surnames of families most associated with each of the four Northern Neck counties. Still other appendices rank the frequency of White surnames, slave given names, slave surnames, and slave manumissions.

To quote the author, “Probate records are a rich source of genealogical, social, historical, and even linguistic data. They can illuminate family relationships and attitude. They can provide windows on the times when they were produced. Sometimes they can even suggest the ways the people of that time spoke.” In Robert Headley’s capable hands, they do that and even more.

Image credit: Northern Neck Proprietary map, via Wikimedia Commons.

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