West Virginia Archives and Libraries

United States West Virginia  Archives and Libraries

The following archives, libraries, and societies have collections or services helpful to West Virginia genealogical researchers.

National
National Archives at Philadelphia 900 Market Street (entrance on Chesnut Street) Philadelphia, PA 19107-4292 Telephone: 215-606-0100 Fax: 215-606-0111 E-mail: [mailto:Philadelphia.archives@nara.gov Philadelphia.archives@nara.gov] Internet: http://www.archives.gov/philadelphia/


 * Has federal agency and court records for Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia. All U.S. federal censuses 1790-1940, and indexes. Also have passenger arrivals in Philadelphia 1800-1945 and Baltimore, pension and bounty land warrant applications, naturalizations 1790-1990, early federal history, diplomacy, military history, Chinese-Americans, World War II homefront, National Park Service, merchant marine, U.S. Army Corp of Engineers, federal tax evasion and smuggling cases.

Societies
West Virginia Genealogical Society P.O. Box 249 Elkview, WV 25071 Telephone: 304-965-1179

The Allegheny Regional Family History Society Post Office Box 1804 Elkins, West Virginia 26241 Email: arhfs@yahoo.com

Libraries
Archives and History Library - Division of Culture and History The Cultural Center Capitol Complex 1900 Kanawha Boulevard East Charleston, WV 25305-0300 Telephone: 304-558-0220 Fax: 304-558-2779

Library of Virginia (State Library) 800 East Broad Street Richmond, VA 23219-8000 Telephone: 804-692-3888 Fax: 804-692-3556


 * The Library of Virginia is an important resource for pre-1863 West Virginia research.

West Virginia Collection West Virginia University Library P.O. Box 6069 Morgantown, WV 26506-6069 Telephone: 304-293-3536 Fax: 304-293-3981
 * A useful guide to this collection is James W. Hess, Guide to Manuscripts and Archives in the West Virginia Collection. Morgantown, West Virginia. West Virginia University Library, 1974. The 1959 edition by Charles Shetler, is on

Santa Cruz Public Library Downtown 224 Church Street Santa Cruz, CA 95060 Telephone: 831-427-7707 ext. 5794 E-mail: E-mail reference service form Internet: http://www.santacruzpl.org/branches/14/


 * Holds the Genealogial Society of Santa Cruz County's library, including the Tina Brayton Collection which is equivalent to the Draper Collection but larger and with a better index, and many compiled genealogies of Virginia, Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee, and West Virginia  families.

West Virginia Online Records
General Information

To learn more about the history and record-keeping systems of West Virginia counties, use the 13 inventories of the county archives published by the Historical Records Survey around 1940. The Family History Library has copies of all of these inventories. These are listed in the FamilySearch Catalog under WEST VIRGINIA - ARCHIVES AND LIBRARIES.

The Historical Records Survey also compiled unpublished (manuscript) inventories for the records of most West Virginia counties. These are available on microfilm at the Family History Library. These are listed in the FamilySearch Catalog under WEST VIRGINIA, [COUNTY] - COURT RECORDS - INVENTORIES, REGISTERS, CATALOGS.


 * An online listing of many West Virginia Archives and societies is at the West Virginia State Archives
 * A resource for locating archives in Appalachia is:


 * Ellen Garrison, Archives in Appalachia: A Directory (Boone, North Carolina: Appalachian Consortium Press, 1985). ; . Includes Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia arranged alphabetically by state, then by the name of the repository. Each entry lists the archive, its address, phone number, inclusive dates of the collection, the records of the collection, what subjects are covered by the collection, and the size of the collection. There are two indexes: Record type, and Subject, with reference numbers corresponding to the repository.