HJ765: Commending Rebecca Suerdieck and Julia Oxrieder.


HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 765
Offered February 2, 2021
Commending Rebecca Suerdieck and Julia Oxrieder.
Patron-- Mullin

WHEREAS, Rebecca Suerdieck, using materials bequeathed by the late Julia Oxrieder, created a unique archive of local history through the Archive Williamsburg project; and

WHEREAS, Archive Williamsburg, which is available free to the public online, consists of more than 1,200 scanned pages of typed Virginia Gazette articles dated between 1893 to 1925, as well as handwritten index cards; and

WHEREAS, Julia Oxrieder, a historian born in 1925, was particularly interested in the period of Williamsburg history preceding her birth, before John D. Rockefeller, Jr., initiated the restoration of the city; and

WHEREAS, upon her death in 2013, Julia Oxrieder left many of her books and historical resources to The College of William and Mary, but left her prized collection of Virginia Gazette articles from the turn of the century to her friend and fellow historian Rebecca Suerdieck; and

WHEREAS, throughout her career, Rebecca Suerdieck has assisted Colonial Williamsburg, the Jamestown Settlement, the National Park Service, and many other local libraries and organizations with history and genealogy inquiries; she worked for the Virginia Gazette in the 1990s; and

WHEREAS, Rebecca Suerdieck’s extensive Archive Williamsburg database is searchable by key words and easy to navigate, ensuring that current and future generations have access to this one-of-a-kind window into Williamsburg’s past; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED by the House of Delegates, the Senate concurring, That the General Assembly hereby commend Rebecca Suerdieck and Julia Oxrieder hereby for their work to digitize newspaper articles through the Archive Williamsburg project; and, be it

RESOLVED FURTHER, That the Clerk of the House of Delegates prepare a copy of this resolution for presentation to Rebecca Suerdieck as an expression of the General Assembly’s admiration for her and Julia Oxrieder’s efforts to preserve the history and heritage of the Commonwealth.