The Lancaster Virginia Historical Society will host a talk and book signing by Margaret L. Forrester and Deborah Beuchelt Walker, authors of “Home Birth Records of Dr. Chichester Tapscott Peirce: Revisited 1900-1919” at 3 o’clock today, Thursday, Oct. 5, at the Lancaster Woman’s Club, which is located next door to the LVHS Museum at 8346 Mary Ball Road, Lancaster.

In this new book, Forrester and Walker have compiled information from birth records for 252 home births, in both white and black households, that were attended by local family physician Dr. Chichester T. Peirce between 1900 and 1919 in Lancaster, Northumberland and Richmond counties.

Entries in the book include the name and birthdate of each baby, and the name, race, age and occupation of the mother and father. According to Forrester, these records were found by searching through hundreds of birth and delayed birth certificates from the Virginia Office of Vital Records, which are only made public after a 100-year priva...