Fluvanna County, Virginia Genealogy

United States &gt; Virginia &gt; Fluvanna County



Parent County
1777--Fluvanna County was created 5 May 1777 from Albemarle County. County seat: Palmyra

Neighboring Counties

 * Albemarle
 * Buckingham
 * Cumberland
 * Goochland
 * Louisa

Church
Baptist


 * King, Mrs. James E. "First Minute Book, Upper Beaver Dam Church, Fluvanna, Virginia," [1830s-1850s] The Virginia Genealogist, Vol. 14, No. 3 (Jul.-Sep. 1970):99-104. Available at FHL; digital version at New England Ancestors($).

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

Land
Grants and Patents


 * Hudgins et al. 713 patents dated 1721-1855 in what is now Fluvanna County, Virginia placed on a map. DeedMapper, 2008. [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.]

Military
French and Indian War


 * Bockstruck, Lloyd DeWitt. Virginia's Colonial Soldiers. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1988. Available at FHL. [Identifies some Fluvanna County veterans; see place name index.]

Newspapers
Indexed images of the Virginia Gazette(1736-1780) are available online through the Colonial Williamsburgwebsite. In addition, 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 this source and other Virginia newspapers (1736-1803), see: The Geography of Slavery in Virginia. These newspapers are valuable resources for all regions of Virginia.

Research Guide

 * "A Guide to the Counties of Virginia: Fluvanna County," The Virginia Genealogist, Vol. 10, No. 2 (Apr.-Jun. 1966):76-77. Available at FHL; digital version 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.


 * Indexed images of the 1790 and 1802 Personal Property Tax Lists of Fluvanna County, Virginia are available online, courtesy: Binns Genealogy.
 * "Fluvanna County, Virginia, 1800 Tax List," The Virginia Genealogist, Vol. 22, No. 1 (Jan.-Mar. 1978):16-22. Available at FHL; digital version 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. Fluvanna County is included in Vol. 1.]

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