User:DiltsGD/Sandbox

United States Virginia  Archives and Libraries

These archives, libraries, societies, and museums preserve sources, maintain indexes, and provide services to help genealogists document their ancestors who lived in Virginia.

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.

State
Virginia Historical Society 428 North Blvd Richmond, VA 23221-0311 Telephone: 804-358-4901 E-mail: Ask a Librarian] form Internet: http://www.vahistorical.org/


 * County records such as marriages, militia lists, bounty lands, tax lists, poll lists, genealogies, newspapers, and family Bibles. They have a card index to 10 million documents of the Old Dominion, that is Virginia, West Virginia, and Kentucky.

Library of Virginia (formerly Virginia State Library and Archives) 800 East Broad Street Richmond, VA 23219-8000 Telephone: 804-692-3500 Fax: 804-692-3556 Websites:Library of Virginia Using the Collection

Their large genealogical collection has family Bibles, birth, marriages, deaths, divorces, histories, biographies, and newspapers. Many of their manuscripts are now online.

The research collections of the Library of Virginia are divided between the General Library and the Research and Information Services Division. The General Library contains printed materials, while the Research and Information Services Division consists of government records and other historical documents.

Many collections are available online, such as Confederate Pension Rolls, Veterans and Widows, Index to Wills and Administrations, Revolutionary War Bounty Warrants, and Virginia Land Office Patents and Grants.

State records in the Research and Information Services Division are described in:

Salmon, John. S., comp. A Guide to State Records in the Archives Branch. Richmond, Virginia: Virginia State Library, 1985.

The Library of Virginia has also published two excellent preliminary guides to the pre-1904 county and municipal records and also publishes annual updates:

Ray, Suzanne Smith. A Preliminary Guide to Pre- 1904 County Records in the Archives Branch, Virginia State Library and Archives. (Richmond, Virginia: Library and Archives, [1988?].)

Hart, Lyndon H. A Preliminary Guide to Pre-1904 Municipal Records in the Archives Branch, Virginia State Library and Archives. (Richmond, Virginia Library and Archives, [1988?].) )

Virginia State Library. Archives and Records Division. Annual Reports of Archival Accessions. (Richmond, Virginia: Library and Archives, 1971–.)

Virginia Theological Seminary Archives of the Bishop Payne Library 3737 Seminary Road Alexandria, VA 22304 Telephone: 703-461-1731 E-mail: [mailto:AskArchives@vts.edu AskArchives@vts.edu] Internet: http://www.vts.edu/podium/default.aspx?t=118926


 * Houses many of the original Church of England (now Episcopalian Church) parish registers, vestry books, and manuscripts of colonial Virginia, as well as photos, and the African American Episcopal Historical Collection. Formerly known as the Protestant Episcopal Theological Seminary in Virginia.

Regional
Earl Gregg Swem Library at the College of William and Mary P.O. Box 8794 Landrum Drive College of William and Mary Williamsburg, Virginia 23187-8794 Phone: (757) 221-3050 Fax: (757) 221-2635


 * Features the famous "Swem Index" of Virginia settlers. This library also has the original papers from Jamestown, the Virginia Company, manuscripts, and journals, including numerous genealogical references. This is the place for researching the earliest Virginia colonists.

Handley Regional Library 100 W. Piccadilly Street PO Box 58 Winchester, VA 22604 Telephone: 540-662-9041 Fax: 540-722-4769 E-mail: [mailto:archives@handleyregional.org archives@handleyregional.org] Internet: http://www.handleyregional.org/handley/default.asp


 * Very large collection about Germans and Scots-Irish who traveled the Great Valley Road from Pennsylvania  to Virginia, including manuscripts, newspapers, biographies, and histories, and people of the Lower Shenandoah Valley since 1732, emphasizing Winchester and Frederick County in 4000 books, county court abstracts, county histories, genealogies, regimental histories, battles, newspapers since 1787, censuses, 600 linear feet of manuscripts, maps, photos, and oral history tapes.

John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library at Colonial Williamsburg PO Box 1776 313 First Street Williamsburg, VA 23187-1776 Telephone: 757-565-8542 Fax: 757-565-8548 E-mail: [mailto:cwres@cwf.org cwres@cwf.org] Internet: http://research.history.org/JDRLibrary.cfm


 * Emphasis is on the history of colonial British America, the American Revolution, and the early United States with books, manuscripts, images, Civil War materials, family Bibles, and databases for research in the political and economic life of the thirteen colonies, the new republic, and African American studies.

Jones Memorial Library 2311 Memorial Avenue Lynchburg, VA 24501 Telephone: 434-846-0501 Fax: 434-846-1572 Internet: http://www.jmlibrary.org/


 * Really good historical materials, family folders, and genealogies of people migrating from the tidelands over the Blue Ridge Mountains into Virginia's Great Valley, many via Lynchburg.

Mary Ball Washington Museum and Library 8346 Mary Ball Road Lancaster, Virginia 22503 Telehone: 804-462-7280 Fax: 804-462-6107 E-mail: [mailto:nfo@mbwm.org nfo@mbwm.org] Internet: http://www.mbwm.org/genealogy.asp


 * A small library with a good name index to nearly every history book published in Virginia  or Kentucky, including biographies, county and local histories, militia records, and fraternal organizations.

Portsmouth Public Library 601 Court Street Portsmouth, VA 23704 Telephone: 757-393-8501


 * A good solid genealogical collection.

Roanoke County Public Library 3131 Electric Road S.W. Roanoke, VA 24018-6496 Telephone: 540-772-7507


 * Wonderful southwest Virginia collection of family folders, books, genealogies, and indexes. The Great Valley Road forked here toward Knoxville, Tennessee, and toward Augusta, Georgia. Some families stayed-over in the area before moving on to Tennessee, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, or Georgia.

University of Virginia Library PO Box 400113 Charlottesville VA 22904-4113 Telephone: 434-924-3021 Fax: 434-924-1431 Internet: http://www.lib.virginia.edu/alderman/


 * Virtually a second state archives with a large genealogical collection, colonial records, federal, private, and state manuscripts.

A helpful guide to this library is Virginia Genealogy, A Guide to Resources in the University of Virginia Library (Charlottesville, Virginia: The University Press of Virginia, 1983) ).

Family History Centers. Some of the collections described above are at least partially available on microfilms at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, and through thousands of its branch Family History Centers. For further information see Introduction to LDS Family History Centers. To locate a center near you, see Find a Family History Center.

Outside Virginia
Library of Congress 101 Independence Ave. SE Thomas Jefferson Building, LJ G4 Washington, D.C. 20540-4660 Telephone: Reading Room: 202-707-5537 Fax:  202-707-1957 E-mail:  Ask a Librarian Internet: http://www.loc.gov/rr/genealogy/


 * The "Local History and Genealogy Reading Room" has moved to the main reading room, but services are unchanged. They are part of the world's largest library including 50,000 genealogies, 100,000 local histories, and collections of manuscripts, microfilms, maps, newspapers, photographs, and published material, strong in North American, British Isles, and German sources.


 * National Archives I, Washington DC, census, pre-WWI military service &amp; pensions, passenger lists, naturalizations, passports, federal bounty land, homesteads, bankruptcy, ethnic sources, prisons, and federal employees.


 * National Archives II, College Park, MD, Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Justice, Labor, State, Transportation, and Treasury all after 1900.

New York Public Library U.S. History, Local History &amp; Genealogy Division Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street, Room 315S New York, NY 10018-2788 Telephone: 212-930-0829 E-mail: Ask a librarian Internet: http://www.nypl.org/


 * This is one of the largest research libraries in the world including excellent genealogical resources for Pennsylvania. The library has city and telephone directories, vital records indexes, local histories, genealogies, federal and state censuses, passenger lists, genealogical collections (including DAR transcripts), and church records. For maps, write to the Map Division at the same address.

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.

Guides

 * Archives in Appalachia: A Directory. Boone, North Carolina: Appalachian Consortium Press, 1985. (Family History Library book 975 A3a.) The record covers the states of Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. The record is 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. Also included is a list, under “Coming Attractions,” of agencies that do not currently collect manuscript materials but plan to do so in the future.