Bath County, Virginia Genealogy

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

Virginia Online Genealogy Records

Description
Bath County is located in the Southwest portion of the Commonwealth of Virginia sharing a border with West Virginia. It was named for England's resort City of Bath because it, too, is the home to a number of warm mineral springs.

Bath County Virginia Courthouse
Bath County Courthouse P.O. Box 180 Warm Springs, VA 24484-0180 Phone: 540-839-2361

Clerk Circuit Court has birth records 1854-1880 Death records 1854-1870 divorce records, probate, land and court records from 1791

Bath County Virginia History


The county is named after the resort town of Bath, England.

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

Boundary Changes
For animated maps illustrating Virginia county boundary changes, "Rotating Formation Virginia County Boundary Maps" (1617-1995) may be viewed for free at the MapofUS.org website.

Record Loss

 * Lost censuses: 1800, 1890

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: \

Research Guides

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

African Americans

 * Freedmen's Bureau Letters or Correspondence, 1865-1872 Online at: Letters or Correspondence, 1865-1872 FamilySearch

Cemeteries

 * 1800-1986 -

Bath County, Virginia cemetery databases are online at the The Genealogy Center of the Allen County Public Library.

Census
1785


 * Botetourt County, Va., 1785 Enumeration. 1972. By Charles T. Burton. Troutville, Virginia : Burton. Online at: FamilySearch Digital Library.

1790 - Lost

1800 - Lost, but a substitute is available, see Taxation

1810


 * 1810 Census of Bath County, Virginia. 1968. By Madeline W. Crickard. Beverly, WVA : Crickard. Online at: Ancestry ($)..

1840

1890 Union Veterans
 * 1840 Bath County, Virginia Census. 2004. By James L. Douthat. Signal Mountain, Tenn : Mountain Press. Free online surname index and purchase details at Mountain Press ($).


 * Virginia's Union Veterans: Eleventh Census of the United States 1890. c1994. By Ronald Ray Turner. Online at: Prince William County Virginia, ;.

Genealogy
More than a dozen genealogies have been published about Bath County, Virginia families. For a list, see Bath County, Virginia Compiled Genealogies.

See also: Virginia Compiled Genealogies

The Katherine Bushman Papers, 1961-1997 at the Library of Virginia include files about Bath County families.

Compiled genealogies that treat multiple Bath County families include:


 * Hardesty, H.H. and James S. Presgraves. Rockbridge County and Bath County: Families &amp; History; Reprinted from Hardesty's Historical and Geographical Encyclopedia, Chicago, etc., 1884. Wytheville, Va.: Bookworm &amp; Silverfish, 2001..
 * Watson, H. Lee. Summary of Records of Bath County, Virginia: Approximately 1850-1900. 4 vols. Sunland, Calif.: H.L. Watson, c2002. . Includes Bath County, Virginia, compilation of families: based on birth, marriage and census records.

Land and Property
Grants and Patents


 * Sims Index to Land Grants in West Virginia. c1992. By Edgar Barr Sims. Springfield, Virginia : Genealogical Books in Print..

Local Histories

 * A Brief History of Bath County, Virginia. 1920. By Jean Graham McAllister. Staunton, Virginia : McClure Co. Online at: FamilySearch Digital Library, Google Books, Ancestry ($).


 * Historical Sketches of Virginia Hot Springs, Warm Sulphur Springs and Bath County, Virginia. 1908. By Joseph Thompson McAllister. Salem, Virginia : Salem Printing and Publishing Company. Online at: Google Books.


 * Annals of Bath County, Virginia. 1917. By Oren Frederic Morton. Staunton, Virginia : McClure Co. Online at: FamilySearch Digital Library, Google Books, Internet Archive.

Revolutionary War

 * A Census of Pensioners for Revolutionary or Military Services: With their Names, Ages, and Places of Residence, as Returned by the Marshalls of the Several Judicial Districts, Under the Act for Taking the Sixth Census. 1841. Washington : Blair and Rives. Online at: Internet Archive, Google Books;.
 * Index to Revolutionary Pension and Bounty-Land Documents at the Library of Virginia. 2012. Compiled by C. Leon Harris. Online at: Library of Virginia.

War of 1812
Bath County men served in the 81st Regiment.


 * List of Pensioners on the Roll, January 1, 1883; Giving the Name of Each Pensioner, the Cause for Why Pensioned, the Post-Office Address, the Rate of Pension Per Month, and the Date of Original Allowance... 1883. Washington, D.C : Government Printing Office. Online at: Internet Archive, Google Books.

Civil War

 * - 11th Regiment, Virginia Cavalry. Company F (The Bath Grays) and Company G (The Bath Guards).
 * - 18th Regiment, Virginia Cavalry (Confederate). Company G.
 * - 25th Regiment, Virginia Infantry (Heck's) (Confederate). Company B (Bath Grays).
 * - 26th Regiment, Virginia Cavalry (Confederate). Company E.
 * - 47th Battalion, Virginia Cavalry (Confederate). Companies A and B.
 * - 52nd Regiment, Virginia Infantry (Confederate). Company K (Bath Rifles).

Records and histories are available, including:


 * 1861-1865 - Virginia, Civil War Service
 * 1861-1865 - Virginia, Civil War Service
 * 1861-1865 - U.S., Confederate Soldiers Compiled Service Records, 1861-1865 Ancestry.
 * 1861-1865 - U.S., Union Soldiers Compiled Service Records, 1861-1865 Ancestry.

World War II

 * 1940-1945 - at FamilySearch — index and images

Miscellaneous Records

 * 1607-2007 -

Naturalization
Virginia Naturalization Petitions, 1906-1929

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.
 * Bath County News-Outlook - full text of more than 100 issues freely available via Google Newspaper Archive

Petitions

 * Virginia State Library: A Calendar of Legislative Petitions Arranged by Counties Accomac - Bedford. 1908. By H.J. Eckenrode. Richmond, Virginia: Davis Bottom, Superintendent of Public Printing. Online at: Google Books. Bath County petitions (1777-1863) are described on pp. 194-210.

Probate Records

 * Abstracts of the Wills and Inventories of Bath County, Virginia, 1791-1842. 1995. By Jean R. Bruns. Baltimore, MD : Genealogical Publishing Co. Online at: Ancestry ($)..

Online Probate Records
 * 1639 – 1850 Virginia Land, Marriage and Probate Records 1639-1850 Ancestry ($)
 * 1791-1813; 1813-1822; 1822-1830 Virginia Pioneers ($) - Images of Wills, Estates, Inventories, Bonds, Deeds

Taxation
How can Virginia tax lists help me?

Bibliography


 * 1782 - 1782 Tithables online at Genealogy Trails.
 * 1783 - 1783 Tithables online at Genealogy Trails.
 * 1791 - 1791 Heads of Families online at Genealogy Trails.
 * 1791 - 1791 Bath County, Virginia Personal Property Tax List. Online at: New River Notes.
 * 1793 - Tax List, Delinquent, 1793, Bath County Heritage Newsletter, Issue 15 (Fall 1987).
 * 1800 - Bath County, Virginia, 1800 Tax List. The Virginia Genealogist, Vol. 7, No. 1 (Jan.-Mar. 1963):21-28. Online at: American Ancestors ($).
 * 1815 - 1815 Directory of Virginia Landowners (and Gazetteer). 1997-2000. By Roger D. Ward. Athens, Georgia : Iberian Pub. Co. 6 vols. The source for this publication is the 1815 land tax. Bath County is included in Vol. 5.

Birth

 * 1853-1866 - at FamilySearch — index and images
 * 1853-1896 - Bath County, Virginia Births: 1853-96. 2000. By Beth Fridley. Provo, UT : The Generations Network, Inc. Online at: Ancestry ($).
 * 1853-1870 - Bath County Birth Index 1853-1870. Batch.
 * 1912-1913 -

Marriage

 * 1660-1800 - Virginia Marriages 1660-1800 Ancestry) ($).
 * 1740-1850 - Virginia Marriages 1740-1850 Ancestry) ($).
 * 1790-1889 - Bath County Marriage Index. Batch.
 * 1853-1935 - at FamilySearch — index and images
 * 1936-1988 -.

Divorce

 * 1918-1988 -

Death

 * 1853-1870 - Bath County Death Index 1853-1870. Batch.
 * 1912-1987 -.

Bath County Virginia Genealogy Societies and Libraries
Bath County Historical Society

Bath County Virginia Genealogy Websites

 * Bath County, Virginia USGENWEB
 * Bath County, VA History, Records, Facts and Genealogy (Familytree101)
 * Cyndi's List
 * Cyndi's List