Cabell County, West Virginia Genealogy

Guide to Cabell County, West Virginia ancestry, genealogy and family history, birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, and military records.

Description
Cabell County was named for William H. Cabell. The county is located in the southwestern area of the state.

County Courthouse
Cabell County Courthouse 8th St and 4th Avenue Huntington, WV 25701 Phone: 304-526-8625 Cabell County Website County Clerk has birth and death records from 1853; marriage records from 1809; land records from 1808 and probate records from 1809. Clerk of the Circuit Court has records from 1809.

Populated Places
For a complete list of populated places, including small neighborhoods and suburbs, visit Hometown Locator. The following are the most historically and genealogically relevant populated places in this county:

Bible Records

 * Bible Records at Doors to the Past
 * Cabell County Bible Records at Cabell County WVGenWeb - RootsWeb
 * Cabell County Bible Records at USGenweb Archive Project
 * (*); at FamilySearch Catalog — images
 * Samuel and Mary Jameson Ferguson at FERGUSON FAMILY GENEALOGICAL HISTORY

Census Records

 * Cabell County (West) Virginia, 1850, an annotated census. By Ronald Ray Turner..

Church Records

 * Cabell County Churches
 * Mud River Baptist Church

Ward and Branch Records of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

List of Churches and Church Parishes
 * Huntington
 * FamilySearch Places

Court Records

 * 1809-1863 (*); at FamilySearch Catalog — images
 * 1814-1866 (*); at FamilySearch Catalog — index & images
 * 1820-1854 (*); Circuit Court at FamilySearch Catalog — index & images
 * 1831-1926 (*); Circuit Court at FamilySearch Catalog — index & images
 * (*); at FamilySearch Catalog — images

Funeral Homes

 * The Heck Funeral Home, located in Milton, Cabell County, West Virginia, has served many individuals in Cabell County and surrounding counties. Thousands of alphabetically arranged abstracts of records are available online and may include age, birth, death, and burial dates and locations. Some records also include parents' names.

Genealogies

 * Greenwood - Greenwood, Frederick and Brown Thurston. Greenwood Genealogies, 1154-1914: The Ancestry and Descendants of Thomas Greenwood, of Newton, Massachusetts; Nathaniel and Samuel Greenwood, of Boston, Massachusetts; John Greenwood, of Virginia, and Many Later Arrivals in America, Also the Early History of the Greenwoods in England, and the Arms They Used. New York: Lyons Genealogical Co., 1914. Digital version at Internet Archive - free.

Local Histories
Birt, William A. "Historical Sketch of Milton, Cabell County West Virginia," West Virginia History, Charleston, WV, vol. 23 (1961-1962). Arc 1. 4:23. Blankenship, James T. A Brief History of Davis Creek Community. Morgantown, Agricultural Extension Division, 1925. (On-line version) Xwv 1. Agr 3. 2: B4. Burdette, Frank Lee. History of Ona.Community. Morgantown, Agricultural Extension Division, 1925. (On-line version) Xwv 1. Agr 3. 2: B8. ________________. Manuscript Collection of Cabell County History, 1927-1939. MS 79-203. Comstock. Jim. Hardesty's Historical and Geographical Encyclopedia. Richwood, West Virginia, 1973. 975.4003 H259 v.6, 12. Dickinson, Jack L. Historical Survey of Greenbottom, Cabell County, WV. Barboursville, West Virginia Jack L. Dickinson, 1988. 975.442 D553. Eldridge, Carrie. A Gazetteer of Extinct Towns of Cabell County, WV. Chesapeake, Ohio, C. Eldridge, 1992. R 917.5442 E37. Geiger, Joe. Civil War in Cabell County, WV, 1861-1865. Charleston, West Virginia, Pictorial Histories Publishing, 1991. 975.442 G312. Geiger, Joe. "Tragic Fate of Guyandotte,"West Virginia History, Volume 54. Guyandotte Civil War Days and Raid on Guyandotte Inc. Thunder in the Village: 137th Anniversary of the Raid on Guyandotte''. Huntington, West Virginia, 1998.''973.442 G986 1998.'. Johnson, Mary. Representative Men and Women of Cabell County, West Virginia. Parkersburg, West Virginia, 1929. 920.0754 J68

Kyle, Mrs. John. ''Early History of Little Seven Mile Community, Cabell County, West Virginia'. Morgantown, West Virginia, Agricultural Extension Division, n.d. (On-line version) Xwv 1. Agr 3. 2:K8. ''KYOWVA Genealogical Society. Cabell County Heritage, 1809-1996''. Huntington, West Virginia, 1996. 975.442 C114. Love, Charles. History of Martha Community, Cabell County, West Virginia. Morgantown, West Virginia, Agricultural Extension Division, 1925. (On-line version) Xwv 1. Agr 3. 2:L6. Miller, Doris C. A Centennial History of Huntington West Virginia, 1870-1971. Huntington, West Virginia, Huntington Centennial Commission, 1971. 975.442 M647.''

Miller, J. W. History of Barboursville Community, Cabell County, West Virginia. Morgantown, West Virginia, Agricultural Extension Division, 1925. (On- line version) Xwv 1. Agr 3. 2:M5 Mitchell, Mrs. Walter. History of Cabell Creek Community Cabell County, West Virginia Morgantown, West Virginia, Agricultural Extension Division, 1925. (On-line version) Xwv 1. Agr 3. 2:M57. Odell, Mrs W. Cabell County, West Virginia and the Agriculture Extension Program. n.p., 1967. 630.715 O23c. Smith, Wiatt. Honor Roll of Cabell County, West Virginia. An Illustrated Historical and Biographical Record of Cabell County's Part in the World War, 1914-1918. Severinghaus Printing Company, 1920.940.9 Sm5.

___________ Program, Guyandotte Centennial, 1810-1910, Cabell County Homecoming Celebration. Huntington, West Virginia, Guyandotte Centennial and Cabell County Homecoming Association, 1910. 975.442 S663.

Wallace, George Selden. Cabell County Annals and Families. Richmond, Virginia, Garrett and Massie, 1935. . Online at: FamilySearch Digital Library, Ancestry ($).

___________________. Cabell County Courthouse, 1809-1940, Record of Cost and Financing Prepared by W. Gregory Crawford and R. S. Douthat. n.p., 1940.975.442 W189c.

___________________. ''Huntington Through Seventy-five Years. Huntington, West Virginia'', George Seldon Wallace, 1947.975.442 W189h.

Wolfe, Matt. ''The History of Pea Ridge. Huntington, West Virginia'', 1979. 975.442 W855 Pam.

A very rare and valuable resource, little known to those not from this area, are the papers of Fred Lambert, housed at the Special Collections of Morrow Library, Marshall University in Huntington. Lambert wrote down oral family histories of hundreds of local families and the collection includes several boxes of his notebooks. Some, but not all, are indexed.

Maps and Gazetteers

 * FamilySearch Places: Map of cities and towns in this county - How to Use FS Places
 * Maps of West Virginia (1617-1995)
 * Map of 1850 Virginia and West Virginia
 * Cabell County West Virginia 1895
 * Cabell County, West Virginia Map

Revolutionary War

 * A Census of Pensioners for Revolutionary or Military Services: With their Names, Ages, and Places of Residence, as Returned by the Marshals of the Several Judicial Districts, Under the Act for Taking the Sixth Census. 1841. Online at: FamilySearch Digital Library, Internet Archive, Ancestry ($). 1967 reprint: 973 X2pc 1840. See Virginia, Western District, Braxton County on page 134.

War of 1812
Cabell County men served in the 120th Regiment.

Civil War

 * - 1st Regiment, Virginia State Line (Cavalry) (Confederate). Companies F and I.
 * - 2nd Regiment, Virginia State Line (Cavalry) (Confederate). Company H.
 * - 4th Regiment, Virginia State Line (Cavalry and Infantry) (Confederate). Company G.
 * - 8th Regiment, Virginia Cavalry (Confederate). Company D (2nd) (Gunn's Rangers).
 * - 16th Regiment, Virginia Cavalry (Confederate). Company D.
 * - 34th Battalion, Virginia Cavalry (Witcher's Battalion, Virginia Mounted Rifles) (Confederate). Company B.
 * - 36th Battalion, Virginia Cavalry (Confederate). Company B.

Records and histories are available, including:


 * 1861-1865  at FamilySearch — index - How to Use this Collection
 * 1861-1865 U.S., Confederate Soldiers Compiled Service Records, 1861-1865 at Ancestry — index (free)
 * 1861-1865 U.S., Union Soldiers Compiled Service Records, 1861-1865 at Ancestry — index (free)

World War II

 * 1940-1945 at FamilySearch — index and images - How to Use this Collection

Naturalization and Citizenship

 * 1814-1991  at FamilySearch — index and images - How to Use this Collection

Newspapers
Huntington's daily newspapers included the Herald Advertiser (historical) and Herald-Dispatch

Obituaries

 * West Virginia Obituaries

Probate Records
Online Probate Indexes and Records
 * 1724-1985 West Virginia, U.S., Wills and Probate Records, 1724-1985 at Ancestry ($) — index & images
 * 1756-1971 at FamilySearch — How to Use this Collection; index & images
 * 1809-1851 (*); at FamilySearch Catalog — index & images
 * 1809-1853 (*); at FamilySearch Catalog — index & images
 * 1820-1991 (*); County Court at FamilySearch Catalog — index & images
 * 1831-1926 (*); Circuit Court at FamilySearch Catalog — index & images
 * 1850-1899 (*); Works Progress Administration at FamilySearch Catalog — images
 * 1850-1899 (*); Historical Records Survey at FamilySearch Catalog — images
 * 1863-1930 (*); County Court at FamilySearch Catalog — index & images
 * 1863-1968 (*); County Court at FamilySearch Catalog — index & images
 * 1876-1930 (*); County Court at FamilySearch Catalog — index & images
 * (*); at FamilySearch Catalog — images

Social Security Records

 * 1935-2014 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; index. Also at Ancestry, findmypast, Fold3, GenealogyBank, MyHeritage, and Steve Morse. Click here for more information.
 * 1936-2007 U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007 at Ancestry ($) — index, click here for more information.

Tax Records
How can West Virginia tax lists help me?


 * 1810 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 . The source for this publication is the 1810 personal property tax list. Cabell County is included because the 1810 Census for that county has been destroyed.
 * 1815 Ward, Roger D. 1815 Directory of Virginia Landowners (and Gazetteer). 6 vols. Athens, Georgia: Iberian Pub. Co., 1997-2000. Available at . The source for this publication is the 1815 land tax. Cabell County is included in Vol. 6.

West Virginia real and personal property tax records are managed by the County Assessor in each county. Land and land improvements are considered real property while mobile property is classified as personal property.

Many County Assessors offer an online searchable database, where assessment record searches can be performed by name, account number, year, or mp/parcel number. Where online records are not available, requests for records can be made to the Assessment Office in person, by phone, or in writing.

The search for tax information can start here

Vital Records

 * West Virginia Vital Records, 1865-1969 (varies) - Includes birth, death, and marriage.
 * Cabell County Clerk has birth and death records from 1853, marriage records from 1809 (see West Virginia Archives and History)

Birth

 * 1853-1914 West Virginia Birth Index, 1853-1914 at MyHeritage - index ($)

Marriage

 * 1776-1971 at FamilySearch — How to Use this Collection; index
 * 1780-1970 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; index
 * 1801-1962 West Virginia, United States Marriages at Findmypast; index $

Death

 * 1804-1999 at FamilySearch — index - How to Use this Collection
 * 1853-1964 West Virginia Death Index & Certificates, 1853-1964 at MyHeritage - index ($)

FamilySearch Centers

 * Huntington West Virginia FamilySearch Center

Libraries
Cabell County Public Library 455 9th Street Plaza Huntington, WV 25701 Phone: 304-528-5700 Website Marshall University Morrow Library Stacks 3rd Avenue Huntington, WV 25755 Phone: 304-696-3121 Website

Societies
Kyowva Genealogy and Historical Society Box 1254 901 Jefferson Ave Huntington, WV 25704 Email: [mailto:kyowvagen@yahoo.com kyowvagen@yahoo.com] Facebook

Websites

 * Cabell County WVGenWeb
 * CYNDI'S List West Virginia
 * Cabell County, West Virginia Microfilms at the Library of Virginia
 * West Virginia Genealogy Network Group on Facebook
 * - The FamilySearch catalog contains descriptions and access information for all genealogical materials (including books, online materials, microfilm, microfiche, and publications) in their collection.  Use Historical Records to search for specific individuals in genealogical records