Harrison County, West Virginia Genealogy

United States &gt; West Virginia &gt; Harrison County

Parent County
1784--Harrison County was created 3 May 1784 from Monongalia County. County seat: Clarksburg

Neighboring Counties

 * Barbour
 * Doddridge
 * Lewis
 * Marion
 * Taylor
 * Upshur
 * Wetzel

Church
LDS Ward and Branch Records


 * Clarksburg

Occupations

 * Cutten, George Barton. The Silversmiths of Virginia (together with Watchmakers and Jewelers) from 1694 to 1850. Richmond, Va.: The Dietz Press, Incorporated, 1952. Available at FHL. [Includes a section on Clarksburg silversmiths.]

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.


 * Harrison County, [West] Virginia Tithable Lands: 1754-1800. Extracts in the West Virginia Collection at the West Virginia University Library, Morgantown, West Virginia; also available on microfilm at FHL.
 * Harrison County, [West] Virginia Tithable List, 1784-1824. Original records, Harrison County Courthouse; also available on microfilm at FHL.
 * 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. Harrison County is included in Vol. 1.]
 * Indexed images of the 1789 Personal Property Tax List of Harrison County, Virginia (now West Virginia) is indexed online, courtesy: Binns Genealogy.
 * Images of the 1801 Personal Property Tax List of Harrison County, Virginia (now West Virginia) are available online, courtesy: Binns Genealogy.
 * 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. Harrison County is included in Vol. 6.]

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