According to a story telecast September 3 on WVIR channel 29 in Charlottesville, the Virginia Alpha Unit of Parliamentarians—whose goals is to promote public awareness of “the principles and practices of democratic decision-making”—believe they have discovered some of Thomas Jefferson’s earliest writings in the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library.

The acts on parliamentary procedures for the Virginia House of Burgesses were discovered in two fragments of a page that was torn in half, and may have been written by Jefferson when he was just 26. Group spokesman Stan Trout said the document “talked about the rules that would operate in the House of Burgesses when decisions were being made. So it became pretty important.”

The group, which is part of the National Association of Parliamentarians, will research the writings with help from UVA and Monticello.