Virginia Genealogical Resources

As I help people with their genealogical research, I get the opportunity to do research in countries all around the world. But not surprisingly, most of the research that I do is in the United States. There is a direct relationship between the difficulty of finding information and the time depth involved. Most of the sticky research problems end up being with ancestors who lived in the earliest part of the 1800s or back into the 1700s or even earlier. I was recently asked about doing research in Virginia in the 1600s. Rather than looking for the person myself, I was asked to provide a list of resources and places to look. I spent some time compiling the list and I thought I would pass those along.

Here is my list of Virginia resources. By no means is this complete but it is a good place to get started. You might notice that the list includes a lot of university special collections libraries.

Here are some websites for starters:

http://www.virginiamemory.com/

http://www.vahistorical.org/

https://grivagenealogy.wordpress.com/

https://alexlibraryva.org/client/en_US/home

See the list on

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~flpcgs/Virginia.html

Here are some libraries and archives;

Library of Virginia

800 East Broad Street

Richmond, Virginia 23219-8000

http://www.lva.virginia.gov/

University of Virginia

Alderman Library

160 McCormick Road

Charlottesville, VA 22903

https://www.library.virginia.edu/

Albert and Shirley Small

Special Collections Library

http://small.library.virginia.edu/

Virginia Military Institute

319 Letcher Avenue

Lexington, Virginia 24450

http://www.vmi.edu/

http://www.vmi.edu/archives/

Virginia Commonwealth University

Richmond, Virginia 23284

(804) 828-0100

https://www.library.vcu.edu/

University Libraries (0434)

Carol M. Newman Library, Virginia Tech

560 Drillfield Drive

Blacksburg, VA 24061

(540) 231-9232

https://www.lib.vt.edu/

Special Collections,

University Libraries (0434)

Virginia Tech

560 Drillfield Drive

Blacksburg, VA 24061

https://spec.lib.vt.edu/

Arlington Public Library

Center for Local History Community Archives

Central Library - Main Floor

1015 N. Quincy St.

Arlington, VA 22201

Phone: (703) 228-5956

http://libraryarchives.arlingtonva.us/About/Index

Albermarle Charlottesville Historical Society

McIntire Building

200 Second St., NE

Charlottesville, VA 22902-5245

http://albemarlehistory.org/index.php

College of William and Mary Library

Earl Gregg Swem Library

The College of William & Mary

400 Landrum Drive

Williamsburg, VA 23185

http://libraries.wm.edu/node/60

John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library

313 First Street

Williamsburg, VA 23185

http://research.history.org/contact/library/

The Virginia Kelly Karnes Archives and Special Collections Research Center

Purdue University Library

Stewart Center, 4th floor of HSSE library

504 W. State Street

West Lafayette, IN 47907

https://www.lib.purdue.edu/spcol

Old Dominion University

3023 Patricia W. and J. Douglas Perry Library

Norfolk, VA 23529

757-683-5350 (phone)

https://www.odu.edu/library/special-collections

Virginia State University Special Collections and Archives

Johnston Memorial Library

1 Hayden Drive

Petersburg, Virginia 23806

(804) 524-5040

http://libguides.vsu.edu/specialcollections

James Madison University

Libraries and Educational Technologies

Special Collections

800 South Main Street

Harrisonburg, Virginia  22807

https://www.lib.jmu.edu/special/

Virginia Union University

Archives and Special Collections

1500 N. Lombardy Street

Richmond, VA 23220

https://www.vuu.edu/library/archives-special-collections

Hampton Public Library

Special Collections

4207 Victoria Blvd.

Hampton, VA 23669

http://www.hampton.gov/100/Libraries

Norfolk Public Library

Sargeant Memorial Collection

Norfolk’s Local History and Genealogy Collection

Slover Library

235 E. Plume Street

Norfolk, VA 23510

(757) 664-7323

http://www.norfolkpubliclibrary.org/about-npl/hours-locations

Here are a few books on Virginia genealogical research

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Family and Church History Department. United States and Canada Reference Unit. Virginia Research Outline. Salt Lake City, Utah: Corporation of the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1988.

———. West Virginia Research Outline. Salt Lake City, Utah: Corporation of the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1988.

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and Family History Library. Research Outline: Virginia. Salt Lake City, UT: Family History Library, 1988.

Clay, Robert Young. Virginia Genealogical Resources. Detroit, Mich. (c/o Burton Historical Collection, Detroit Public Library, 5201 Woodward Ave., Detroit 48202): Detroit Society for Genealogical Research, 1980.

Curtis, Oscar F. Research File: Teague--Farr and Allied Families. Salt Lake City, Utah: Filmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah, 1989.

Dodd, Jordan R, and Inc Liahona Research. Virginia Marriages, Early to 1800. North Salt Lake, Utah: Heritage Quest, 2001.

Elliott, Wendy L. Research in Virginia. Bountiful, Utah: American Genealogical Lending Library, 1987.

Grundset, Eric, Barbara Vines Little, and National Genealogical Society. Research in Virginia, 2014.

Humling, Virginia. U.S. Catholic Sources: A Diocesan Research Guide. Salt Lake City, Utah: Ancestry, 1995.

Library of Virginia. Genealogical Research at the Library of Virginia: A Guide to Resources. Richmond: Library of Virginia, 1997.

———. Genealogical Research at the Library of Virginia: An Informational Pamphlet. Richmond: Library of Virginia, 1994.

Lowder, Dott Virginia. Lowder Genealogy. Place of publication not identified: s.n.

McGinnis, Carol. Virginia Genealogy Research, 2012.

Roberts, Virginia P. Virginia Porter Roberts Genealogical Research Records/documents. Salt Lake City, Utah: Filmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah, 2000.

Rodes, Adeline Virginia, and Karl Frederick Steinhauer. A Guide to Research on Rodes Genealogy,. Kansas City, Mo.: Steinhauer Press, 1933.

Rose, Ben Lacy. Report of Research on the Lea Family in Virginia & North Carolina before 1800. Decorah, Iowa: Anundsen Pub. Co., 1995.

Schweitzer, George Keene. Virginia Genealogical Research. Knoxville, TN (407 Ascot Court, Knoxville 37923): G.K. Schweitzer, 2005.

Southern California Genealogical Society. Genealogical Research in West Virginia. Burbank, CA: Southern California Genealogical Society, 1986.

Virginia Genealogical Society. Virginia Genealogical Society. Richmond Va.: Virginia Genealogical Society, 1997. http://www.vgs.org/.

———. Virginia Marriages in Rev. John Cameron’s Register and Bath Parish Register. Richmond, Va.: Virginia Genealogical Society, 1963.

Virginia, General Assembly, and Joint Committee on the State Library. Colonial Records of Virginia. Baltimore: Genealogical Pub. Co., 1977.

Virginia State Library. Genealogical Research in the Virginia State Library. Richmond, 1973.

———. Genealogical Research in the Virginia State Library. Richmond: The Library, 1980.

———. Provisional List of Works on Genealogy and Works Helpful in Genealogical Research in the Virginia State Library ... Richmond, Va., 1908.

If you're interested at all in doing genealogical research in Virginia, this list should get you started.

You might notice that the large online database websites for genealogy are conspicuously missing. I assume that if you've done any genealogical research at all, you would start by looking at the major genealogical database websites and many of the online digital book websites.