West Virginia Gazetteers

Online Gazetteers

 * FamilySearch Places
 * West Virginia Hometown Locator
 * WVDOT West Virginia County Boundaries
 * West Virginia Post Offices
 * West Virginia county formations and boundary change WV Historical Records Survey. West Virginia County Formations and Boundary Change. Digital Publisher FamilySearch International
 * West Virginia State Gazetteer and Business Directory 1882-1883 R L Polk. West Virginia State Gazetteer and Business Directory 1882-1883. Philadelphia, Pa. : R.L. Polk & Co. 1882
 * West Virginia State Gazetteer and Business Directory 1891-1892 R L Polk. West Virginia State Gazetteer and Business Directory 1891-1892. Philadelphia, Pa. : R.L. Polk & Co. 1891
 * West Virginia State Gazetteer and Business Directory 1904-1905 R L Polk. West Virginia State Gazetteer and Business Directory 1904-1905. Wheeling, W. Va. : R.L. Polk & Co. 1904
 * The National gazetteer of the United States of America. United States Concise 1990 US Geological Survey. The National gazetteer of the United States of America. United States Concise 1990. Washington : U.S. G.P.O. ; 1990.

Print Only Gazetteers

 * The West Virginia heritage encyclopedia Jim Comstock. The West Virginia Heritage Encyclopedia. Richwood, West Virginia : Comstock, c1976
 * A Gazetteer of Virginia and West Virginia Henry Gannett. A Gazetteer of Virginia and West Virginia, 1904. Baltimore, Maryland : Genealogical Publishing Company, 1975
 * West Virginia place names, their origin and meaning Hamill T Kenny. West Virginia Place Names, Their Origin and Meaning : including the nomenclature of the streams and mountains. Piedmont, West Virginia : Place Name Press, c1945
 * West Virginia historical almanac and gazetteer Sam Clagg. West Virginia Historical Almanac and Gazetteer. [S.l.] : Marshall University. John Deaver Drinko Academy, c2002
 * West Virginia, her counties, her townships and her towns West Virginia, Her Counties, Her Townships and Her Towns. Indianapolis, Indiana : Researchers, [198-?]
 * The planting of New Virginia Warren R Hofstra. The planting of New Virginia : settlement and landscape in the Shenandoah Valley. Baltimore, Maryland : Johns Hopkins University Press, c2004
 * The Western Boarder of Maryland Charles Morrison. The Western Boarder of Maryland. Parsons, West Virginia : McClain Print. Co., c1976
 * How justice grew, Virginia counties : an abstract of their formation Martha Woodruff Hiden. How Justice Grew, Virginia Counties : an abstract of their formation. [S.l. : s.n.], 1967, c1957

Why Use Gazetteers
A gazetteer is a dictionary of place-names. Gazetteers list or describe towns and villages, parishes, states, populations, rivers and mountains, and other geographical features. They usually include only the names of places that existed at the time the gazetteer was published. Within a specific geographical area, the place-names are listed in alphabetical order, similar to a dictionary. You can use a gazetteer to locate the places where your family lived and to determine the civil and religious jurisdictions over those places.

There are many places within a state with similar or identical place-names. You will need to use a gazetteer to identify the specific town where your ancestor lived, the state the town was or is in, and the jurisdictions where records about the person was kept.

Gazetteer Contents
Gazetteers may also provide additional information about towns, such as:


 * Different religious denominations
 * Schools, colleges, and universities
 * Major manufacturers, canals, docks, and railroad stations
 * The population size.
 * Boundaries of civil jurisdiction.
 * Ecclesiastical jurisdiction(s)
 * Longitude and latitude.
 * Distances and direction from other from cities.
 * Schools, colleges, and universities.
 * Denominations and number of churches.
 * Historical and biographical information on some individuals (usually high-ranking or famous individuals)