Princess Anne County, Virginia Genealogy

United States &gt; Virginia &gt; Princess Anne County

Parent County
1776--[wrong county] Montgomery County was created 7 October 1776 from Fincastle and Botetourt Counties. Fincastle County was formed from Botetourt County in 1772, and was abolished in 1777. County seat: Christiansburg

Church
Church of England


 * Mason, George Carrington. "The Colonial Churches of Lynnhaven Parish, Princess Anne County, Virginia," The William and Mary Quarterly, Second Series, Vol. 18, No. 3 (Jul. 1938):270-285. Available at JSTOR ($).

Court
General


 * Mason, George Carrington. "The Court-Houses of Princess Anne and Norfolk Counties," The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 57, No. 4 (Oct. 1949):405-415. Available at JSTOR ($).

Family Histories

 * [Cocke] "The Cocke Family of Virginia. The Cockes of Surry and Princess Anne," The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 5, No. 2 (Oct. 1897):181-198. Available at JSTOR ($).
 * [Cocke] Keim, Betty T. "Cocke Genealogy," The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 5, No. 4 (Apr. 1898):449. Available at JSTOR ($).
 * [Moseley] "Families of Lower Norfolk and Princess Anne Counties," The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 5, No. 3 (Jan. 1898):327-334. Available at JSTOR ($).
 * [Saunders] "Saunders: Princess Anne County, Virginia," The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 32, No. 1 (Jan. 1924):92-96. Available at JSTOR ($).
 * [Walke] "Families of Lower Norfolk and Princess Anne Counties," The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 5, No. 2 (Oct. 1897):139-153. Available at JSTOR ($).

Immigration

 * Coldham, Peter Wilson. North American Wills Registered in London 1611-1857. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 2007. [Includes wills of residents of Linhaven [Lynnhaven Parish], Lynn Haven [Lynnhaven Parish], and Princess Anne County proved in London. These records often help establish an immigrant's place of origin.]

Military
Colonial Militia


 * Bockstruck, Lloyd DeWitt. Virginia's Colonial Soldiers. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1988. Available at FHL. [Identifies some Princess Anne County militia officers and/or soldiers; see place name index.]
 * Crozier, William Armstrong. Virginia Colonial Militia 1651-1776. Baltimore: Southern Book Co., 1954. Available at FHL; digital book at Ancestry ($). [Identifies some Princess Anne County militia officers; see place name index.]

French and Indian War


 * Bockstruck, Lloyd DeWitt. Virginia's Colonial Soldiers. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1988. Available at FHL. [Identifies some Princess Anne County militia officers, soldier enlistments, and veterans; see place name index.]
 * Crozier, William Armstrong. Virginia Colonial Militia 1651-1776. Baltimore: Southern Book Co., 1954. Available at FHL; digital book at Ancestry ($). [Identifies some Princess Anne County militia officers; 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.

Probate
Original Wills


 * James, Edward W. "Will of Josias Mackie, Presbyterian Minister, Norfolk and Princess Anne Counties, 1716," The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 7, No. 4 (Apr. 1900):358-363. Available at JSTOR ($).

London Courts


 * Coldham, Peter Wilson. North American Wills Registered in London 1611-1857. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 2007. [Includes wills of residents of Linhaven [Lynnhaven Parish], Lynn Haven [Lynnhaven Parish], and Princess Anne County proved in London. These records often help establish an immigrant's place of origin.]

Slavery

 * "Slave Owners in Princess Anne Co.," The William and Mary Quarterly, Vol. 2, No. 3 (Jan. 1894):146-148; Vol. 3, No. 1 (Jul. 1894):52-60. Available at JSTOR ($). [List of masters in 1810 who owned 10 or more slaves.]

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. Princess Anne County is included in Vol. 2.]
 * [1790/1791, 1799] Indexed images of the 1790/1791 and 1799 Personal Property Tax Lists of Princess Anne County, Virginia are available online at Binns Genealogy.
 * [1810] James, Edward Wilson. "Slaveowners in Princess Anne County," William and Mary College Quarterly, 1st Series, Vol. 2 (1894):146-149; Vol. 3 (1894):53-60. Available at FHL; reprinted in Virginia Tax Records. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1983, which is also available at FHL; digital version at JSTOR ($). [James abstracted the names of slaveowners who owned 10 or more slaves.]
 * [1815] 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. Princess Anne County is included in Vol. 3.]

Vital Records
Marriage


 * James, Edward W. "Marriage Licenses--Princess Anne County," The William and Mary Quarterly, Vol. 1, No. 3 (Jan. 1893):162-163; Vol. 1, No. 4 (Apr. 1893):203-207; Vol. 2, No. 2 (Oct. 1893):73-77. Available at JSTOR ($).

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