Bath County, Virginia Genealogy

United States &gt; Virginia &gt; Bath County

Parent County
1790--Bath County was created 14 December 1790 from Augusta, Botetourt and Greenbrier (Now in West Virginia) Counties. County seat: Warm Springs.

Neighboring Counties

 * Alleghany
 * Augusta
 * Greenbrier County, West Virginia
 * Highland
 * Pocahontas County, West Virginia
 * Rockbridge

Cemeteries
For a more detailed list, including addresses, phone numbers, and external links, see Bath County, Virginia Cemeteries.

The following is a list of cemeteries in Bath County:

The Genealogy Center of the Allen County Library has a number of Bath County, Virginia cemetery databases on-line.

Census
1785


 * Burton, Charles T. Botetourt County, Va., 1785 Enumeration. Troutville, Va.: Burton?, 1972. Available at FHL; digital version at Ancestry ($). [All of part of present-day county of Bath is included.]

1790 - Lost

1800 - Lost

1810


 * Crickard, Madeline W. 1810 Census of Bath County, Virginia. Beverly, W. Va.: Crickard, 1968?. Available at FHL; digital version at Ancestry ($).

Family Histories
It is anticipated that this bibliography will eventually identify all known family histories published about residents of this county. In addition to finding a direct ancestor’s surname listed, and watching to see if more recent publications make additions and corrections to earlier works, this list is also useful for determining if genealogists have published accounts, to quote Elizabeth Shown Mills, for any members of an ancestor’s “FAN Club” [Family, Associates, and Neighbors]. Checking publications about those individuals can lead you to new information about your own ancestry. Be mindful that compiled genealogies may contain errors.

Bibliography


 * [Dilley] Jones, Thomas W. "Dilley of Northern Virginia and Ohio: A Proposed Solution Hanging on a Single Word," The American Genealogist, Vol. 79, No. 3 (Jul. 2004):220-227.

Local Histories

 * McAllister, Jean Graham. A Brief History of Bath County, Virginia. Staunton, Va.: McClure Co., 1920. Available at FHL; digital version at Ancestry ($).
 * Morton, Oren Frederic. Annals of Bath County, Virginia. Staunton, Va.: McClure Co., 1917. Available at FHL; digital version at Ancestry ($).

Newspapers
Professor Tom Costa and The Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia have created a database of all runaway advertisements for slaves, indentured servants, transported convicts, and ship deserters listed in the Virginia Gazette and other Virginia newspapers (1736-1803), see: The Geography of Slavery in Virginia.

Probate

 * Bruns, Jean R. Abstracts of the Wills and Inventories of Bath County, Virginia, 1791-1842. Baltimore, MD, USA: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1995. Available at FHL; digital version at Ancestry ($).

Research Guides

 * "A Guide to the Counties of Virginia: Bath County," The Virginia Genealogist, Vol. 4, No. 3 (Jul.-Sep. 1960):128-131. Available at New England Ancestors ($).

Taxation
At first glance, researchers might conclude that Virginia tax lists contain very little family history data, though one soon learns that valuable genealogical conclusions can be drawn from these records, nicknamed "annual censuses," such as: relationships, approximate years of birth, socio-economic status, identification of neighbors, the ability to distinguish between persons of the same name, evidence of land inheritance, years of migration, and years of death.

Virginia began enumerating residents' payments of personal property and land taxes in 1782. These two types of taxation were recorded in separate registers. Personal property tax lists include more names than land tax lists, because they caught more of the population. The Family History Library has an excellent microfilm collection of personal property tax lists from 1782 (or the year the county was organized) well into the late nineteenth century for most counties, but only scattered land tax lists. Microfilm collections at The Library of Virginia include land tax lists for all counties and independent cities for the years 1782 through 1978, as well as personal property tax lists for the years 1782 through 1930 (and every fifth year thereafter). Taxes were not collected in 1808.

Some tax records are available online or in print, though published abstracts often omit useful details found only in the original sources. Statewide indexes can help genealogists identify specific counties where surnames occurred in the past, providing starting points for research.


 * "Bath County, Virginia, 1800 Tax List," The Virginia Genealogist, Vol. 7, No. 1 (Jan.-Mar. 1963):21-28. Available at New England Ancestors ($).
 * Ward, Roger D. 1815 Directory of Virginia Landowners (and Gazetteer). 6 vols. Athens, Georgia: Iberian Pub. Co., 1997-2000. Available at FHL. [The source for this publication is the 1815 land tax. Bath County is included in Vol. 5.]

Vital Records
Birth


 * Fridley, Beth, comp. Bath County, Virginia Births: 1853-96 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2000. Available at Ancestry ($).

Websites

 * USGenWeb project. May have maps, name indexes, history or other information for this county. Select the state, then the county.
 * Family History Library Catalog