Tazewell County, Virginia Genealogy

United States &gt; Virginia &gt; Tazewell County



Parent County
1799--Tazewell County was created 17 December 1799 from Russell and Wythe Counties. County seat: Tazewell

Neighboring Counties

 * Bland
 * Buchanan
 * McDowell County, West Virginia
 * Mercer County, West Virginia
 * Russell
 * Smyth

Biography

 * Brock, R.A. Virginia and Virginians: Tazewell County: Eminent Virginians, 1606-1888. Richmond, Virginia: H.H. Hardesty, 1888. 1998 reprint available at FHL. Online index is available.

Census
For tips on accessing census records online, see Virginia Census.

1790 - Lost.

1800 - Lost.

1810 - Lost, but a subsitute is available, see Taxation.

Court
Chancery Court


 * Indexed images to Tazewell County, Virginia Chancery Records 1800-1920 are available online through Virginia Memory: Chancery Records Index. These records, which were often concerned with inheritance disputes, contain a wealth of genealogical information.

County Court


 * "Tazewell County, Virginia, Order Book 1800-1810, Selected Entries," The Virginia Genealogist, Vol. 15, No. 1 (Jan.-Mar. 1971):61-70; Vol. 15, No. 2 (Apr.-Jun. 1971):121. Available at New England Ancestors ($). [Project cancelled once it was learned that Netti Schreiner-Yantis was preparing to publish a complete transcript of this order book.]

Family Histories

 * [Bailey] Howe, Mary Ellen. Richard Bailey of Chesterfield and Tazewell Counties, Virginia: and His Descendants. 2 vols. Springfield, Virginia: M.E. Howe, 1984-2003. Available at FHL.
 * [Bailey] Beers, Donna. James and Lucy Simms Gay Bailey of Tazewell Co., VA. Warrensburg, Missouri: Donna Beers, 1998. Available at FHL.
 * [Brown] Cook, Bonnie Turner. Brown Families of the Virginias: Descendants of James Brown Sr. and Esther Goff Brown of Tazewell County Virginia. Cape Coral, Florida: B.T. Cook, 2005. Available at FHL.
 * [Compton] Llamas, Judith King. John and Rebecca Compton, Pioneer Settlers of Tazewell County, Virginia: This Text Has Been Compiled to Commemorate the Family Reunion of the Descendants of Cornelius Moses and Ora Kathrine Johnson Compton, Held in Princeton, West Virginia, on July 31, 1993. Mt. Dora, Florida: J.K. Llamas, 1993. Available at FHL.
 * [Goodwin] Goodwin, John S. The Goodwin Families in America. Whittet &amp; Shepperson, 1897. 1969 reprint available at FHL. 1990s supplement also available at FHL.
 * [Goodwin] "Appendix H: The Goodwins of Botetourt and Tazewell Counties, Virginia," The William and Mary Quarterly, Vol. 6, No. 2, Supplement (Oct. 1897):91-99. Available at JSTOR ($).
 * [Goodwin] "Appendix F: The Goodwins of Botetourt and Tazewell Counties, Va," The William and Mary Quarterly, Vol. 8, No. 2, Supplement (Oct. 1899):17-18. Available at JSTOR ($).
 * [Goodwin] Bates, Edward Bryant. Brief History of the Goodwin Family of Augusta, Botetout and Tazewell and Tazewell Counties of Virginia. Bass Lake, California: E. Bates, [198-]. Available at FHL.
 * [Harman] Nuckols, Ashley Kay. The Harman-Harmon Family Marriage Records 1800-1993: Tazewell County, Virginia. A.K. Nuckols, 1995. Available at FHL.
 * [Litz] Lower, Samuel S. Peter Gose Litz (1802-1880), Burke's Garden, Tazewell, Virginia, and Wife, Sarah Gose (1805-1860): Ancestors, Descendants and History. Plain City, Utah: S.S. Lower, 1996. Available at FHL.
 * [Matney] Key, Janell Susan, Flossie Mae Loch, and Elsie Susan Jane Matney Sheldon Stowe. The Matney Family Genealogy: Descendants of Elisha McDaniel and Sarah Jane (Beagle) Matney: Settlers to Wyanotte County, Kansas from Tazewell County, Virginia. 1983. Available at FHL.
 * [Peery] Nuckols, Ashley Kay. Marriage Records 1800-1993 of the Peery/Perry Families: Taken from the Tazewell County, Va. Circuit Court Records. 2001?. Available at FHL.
 * [Ratcliffe] See White.
 * [Steele] See White.
 * [Thompson] Anderson, Judy B. Virginia Connections: A Genealogical History of the Thompson - Ward Families from Tazewell County and Wythe County, Virginia: With Histories and Supplemental Material Concerning the Direct-line Ancestors of the Compiler of this Work. Roy, Utah: J.B. Anderson, 1983. Available at FHL.
 * [Totten] Dillon, Anna Mary Totten. The John Totten Family of Early Tazewell County, Virginia (McDowell County, W. Va.) and Descendants 1774 - 1986. Columbus, Ohio: A.M.T. Dillon, 1986. Available at FHL.
 * [Totten] Dillon, Anna Mary Totten. Errara and Additional Totten Families of the John Totten Family of Early Tazewell Co., Va. (McDowell Co., W. Va.) and Descendants, 1774-1986. [Columbus, Ohio]: A.M.T. Dillon, [1990?]. Available at FHL.
 * [Waggoner] Hatcher, Thomas C. and Nancy Nash. The Adam Waggoner Family of Tazewell and Montgomery Counties, Virginia 1750-1996. North Tazewell, Virginia: N. Nash, 1996. Available at FHL.
 * [Ward] See Thompson.
 * [White] Hockett, Jack. White, Ratcliffe (Ratcliff, Ratliff, Ratliffe) &amp; Some Related Families: Mentions in Tazewell County, Virginia (TVC) Order Books 1801-1840. St. Davids, Pennsylvania: J. Hackett, 1995. Available at FHL.
 * [Wynne] Whitman, Frances H. The Wynne Family of Tazewell County, Virginia. 1956. Available at FHL.

Land
Grants and Patents


 * Anderson. 699 patents dated 1782-1912 in what is now Russell and Tazewell Counties, Virginia placed on a map. DeedMapper. 2007. [Names of those who received land patents, dates, land descriptions, and references may be viewed free of charge (click "Index" next to the county listing); however, in order to view the maps, it is necessary to purchase Direct Line Software's DeedMapper product.]

Local Histories

 * Bickley, George W.L. and J. Allen Neal. History of the Settlement and Indian Wars of Tazewell County, Virginia. Parsons, West Virginia: McClain Print. Co., 1974. Available at FHL.
 * Bundy, Nellie White. Sketches of Tazewell County, Virginia's Early History. Virginia?: Historic Crab Orchard Museum, 1976. Available at FHL.
 * Fulk, Marie Rabbitt. History of Tazewell County, Illinois: Together with Sketches of its Cities, Villages and Townships, Biographies, History of Illinois. 1879; reprint, Evansville, Indiana: Unigraphic, 1975. Available at FHL.
 * Pendleton, William C. History of Tazewell County and Southwest Virginia, 1748-1920. Richmond, Virginia: W.C. Hill Printing Co., 1920. Available at FHL; digital book available at Google Books (full-view).

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.

Occupations

 * Stevenson, John J. "Notes on the Quinnimont Coal Group in Mercer Co. of West Virginia and Tazewell Co. of Virginia Notes on the Quinnimont Coal Group in Mercer Co. of West Virginia and Tazewell Co. of Virginia," Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 19, No. 109 (Jun.-Dec. 1881):498-505. Available at JSTOR ($).

Research Guides

 * "A Guide to the Counties of Virginia: Tazewell County," The Virginia Genealogist, Vol. 23, No. 3 (Jul.-Sep. 1979):218-220. 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.


 * Schreiner-Yates, Netti. A Supplement to the 1810 Census of Virginia: Tax Lists of the Counties for which the Census is Missing. Springfield, Va.: Genealogical Books in Print, 1971. Available at FHL. [The source for this publication is the 1810 personal property tax lists. Tazewell County is included because the 1810 Census for that county has been destroyed.]
 * 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. Tazewell County is included in Vol. 5.]

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