Jean L. Cooper

Jean Cooper works as a Metadata Librarian at the University of Virginia Library. She is the author of "A Guide to Historic Charlottesville and Albemarle County, Virginia" (History Press, 2007), "Index to Records of Ante-Bellum Southern Plantations. 2nd ed." (McFarland Publishing, 2009), "Index of Students of the University of Virginia, 1825-1874" (Shortwood Press, 2011), and "A Challenge Was Given" (Shortwood Press, 2017) about the famous McCarty duels in Virginia.

Her most recent book is "Hidden Wills: An Index of Wills Found in Central Virginia Chancery Records Through 1870" (Shortwood Press, 2019) in which she indexes the wills that are included in the Chancery Records Index available at the Library of Virginia.

Her blog gives short biographies of U.Va. students listed in the Index. Jean received the Virginia Genealogical Society's Virginia Records Award in 2009 for her work in indexing the Records of Ante-Bellum Southern Plantations microfilm collection.

Jean founded Shortwood Press, which publishes non-fiction books, primarily in history. "Martha Jefferson Randolph: Revolutionary Daughter and Plantation Mistress" by Billy L. Wayson was the first of Shortwood's publications.

In 2020, Shortwood Press published "Peter Jefferson's Snowdon" by Joanne L. Yeck, and "Freedmen of the Fronter, vol. 2," by Angela Walton-Raji.