Fredericksburg (Independent City), Virginia Genealogy

United States &gt; Virginia &gt; Fredericksburg (Independent City)

Parent County
1879--Fredericksburg became an independent city from Spotsylvania County in 1879.

African American

 * Heinegg, Paul. "Fredericksburg City Personal Property Tax List 1787-1815," Free African Americans.com, available online. [Heinegg abstracted free blacks listed in these records.]

Church
Baptist


 * Darter, Oscar H. The History of Fredericksburg Baptist Church, Fredericksburg, Virginia. Richmond, Virginia, 1959.

Court
Searches of Fredericksburg court records should begin with:


 * Indexes of Court Records in the Clerk's Office, Fredericksburg, Virginia, 1782-1904. Original records, Fredericksburg City Courthouse, Fredericksburg, Va., microfilmed reproduction available at FHL. [Indexes the following records: District Court law book v. 8, 1782-1792; District Court law books 1790-1793, v. A-F 1789-1811; Superior Court of Law law order books v. G-H 1812-1831; Superior Court of Chancery chancery order books 1814-1831; Hustings Court orders v. A-O 1782-1871; Circuit Superior Court of Law and Chancery law order books v. A-E 1831-1875; Circuit Superior Court of Law and Chancery chancery order books v. A-D 1831-1872; Circuit Court chancery order books v. A2, B-C 1875-1904; Fredericksburg District Court (1789-1808) had jurisdiction over the following counties: Spotsylvania (including Fredericksburg), Caroline, King George, Stafford, Orange, and Culpeper; Superior Court of Chancery (1802-1831) had jurisdiction over the following localities: city of Fredericksburg and the counties of Caroline, Culpeper, Fauquier, Fairfax, Lancaster, Northumberland, Madison, King George, Orange, Prince William, Richmond, Spotsylvania, Stafford, Essex, and Westmoreland.]

Family Histories

 * [Mercer] John T. Goolrick. The Life of General Hugh Mercer. With Brief Sketches of General George Washington, John Paul Jones, General George Weedon, James Monroe and Mrs.Mary Ball Washington, Who were Friends and Associates of General Mercer at Fredericksburg; Also a Sketch of Lodge No. 4, A. F. and A. M., of Which Generals Washington and Mercer were Members; and a Genealogical Table of the Mercer Family. New York &amp; Washington: The Neale Publishing Company, 1906. Available at FHL; digital version at Ancestry ($).

Historic Residences

 * Goolrick, John T. Fredericksburg and the Cavalier Country: America's Most Historic Section, It's Homes: It's People and Romances. Richmond, Va.: Garrett &amp; Massie, 1935. Available at FHL.
 * Goolrick, John T. Old Homes and History Around Fredericksburg: The Northern Neck and the Southside, Stafford and Spotsylvania Counties and Battle Sketches. Richmond: Garrett &amp; Massie, c1929. Available at FHL; digital versions at Ancestry ($) and BYU Family History Archives.

Immigration

 * Coldham, Peter Wilson. "Intercepted Letters Relating to America 1777-1811," The Genealogist, Vol. 14, No. 2 (Fall 2000):184-200; Vol. 15, No. 1 (Spring 2001):53-74. [Overseas correspondence of residents of Fredericksburg with the following surnames: Brook, Galibert, Hunter, Proudfitt.]

Local Histories

 * Goolrick, John T. Fredericksburg and the Cavalier Country: America's Most Historic Section, It's Homes: It's People and Romances. Richmond, Va.: Garrett &amp; Massie, 1935. Available at FHL.

Military
French and Indian War


 * Bockstruck, Lloyd DeWitt. Virginia's Colonial Soldiers. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1988. Available at FHL. [Identifies some Fredericksburg militia officers, soldier enlistments, and 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.

Free Lance Star Historical Papers online: http://news.google.com/archivesearch

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.


 * [1787] Schreiner-Yantis, Netti and Florene Speakman Love. The 1787 Census of Virginia: An Accounting of the Name of Every White Male Tithable Over 21 Years, the Number of White Males Between 16 &amp; 21 Years, the Number of Slaves over 16 &amp; Those Under 16 Years, Together with a Listing of Their Horses, Cattle &amp; Carriages, and Also the Names of All Persons to Whom Ordinary Licenses and Physician's Licenses Were Issued. 3 vols. Springfield, Va.: Genealogical Books in Print, 1987. Available at FHL. [The source of this publication is the 1787 personal property tax list. Fredericksburg is included in Vol. 2.]
 * [1787-1815] Heinegg, Paul. "Fredericksburg City Personal Property Tax List 1787-1815," Free African Americans.com, available online. [Heinegg abstracted free blacks listed in these records.]
 * [1790, 1801] Indexed images of the 1790 and 1801 Personal Property Tax Lists of Fredericksburg, Virginia are available online at Binns Genealogy.
 * [1815] Ward, Roger D. 1815 Directory of Virginia Landowners (and Gazetteer). 6 vols. Athens, Georgia: Iberian Pub. Co., 1997-2000. Available at FHL. [This source is based on the 1815 land tax. Spotsylvania County is included in Vol. 4.]

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