West Virginia Biography

You can usually find biographical information in state, regional, and county histories. An excellent source of biographical information on past and present West Virginians is:

Comstock, Jim F. West Virginia Heritage Encyclopedia and the supplemental series. (Family History Library book 975.4 H26w, volumes 1-25; fiche 6051350.)

An index to biographical sketches in several hundred local histories and genealogies is:

Wardell, Patrick G. Timesaving Aid to Virginia-West Virginia Ancestors: A Genealogical Index of Surnames from Published Sources. Four Volumes. Athens, Georgia: Iberian Publishing Company, 1990. (Family History Library book 975 D22w.)

Representative biographical sources at the Family History Library are:

Atkinson, George Wesley. Prominent Men of West Virginia. Wheeling, West Virginia: W. L. Callin, 1890. (Family History Library film 1000648 item 3.)

Callahan, James Morton. History of West Virginia, Old and New. Three Volumes. Chicago, Illinois: American Historical Society, 1923. (Family History Library book 975.4 H2c; Volume 1 on film 1425634 item 4; Volumes 2-3 on film 1698201 items 1-2.) Volumes two and three are biographical.

Men of West Virginia. Two Volumes. Chicago, Illinois: Biographical Publishing Company, 1903. (Family History Library book 975.4 D3; film 874390 items 1-2.)

Miller, Thomas Condit, and Hu Maxwell. West Virginia and Its People. Three Volumes. New York, New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1913. (Family History Library book 975.4 H2mw; film 1000646.) Volumes two and three include family and personal histories.

Web Sites
West Virginia Biographies Project: http://www.wileygenealogy.com/~usbios/wv.html

A History of The Middle New River Settlements and Contiguous Territory http://www.kinyon.com/westvirginia/midnewriver/contents.htm