HOW AND WHERE TO LOOK IT UP
RESOURCES FOR RESEARCHING THE HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA. ©2001
William D. Theriault, Ph.D.
17434 Virginia Ave.
Hagerstown, MD 21740
WMTheriault@myactv.net
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10. Geneaology
Taken to its extreme, genealogy in Jefferson County would encompass everyone who ever lived here, where they came from, and where they went. On a more practical level, this chapter describes materials that contain local information useful to genealogists. These resources fall into two main groups: primary sources, such as records of births, deaths, marriages, and land transactions, and wills; and secondary sources, such as family histories.

This survey is not meant to supplant the numerous “How To” books on genealogy, nor is it intended to list all published and unpublished genealogies of Jefferson County families.

Primary Sources
For persons who live in or near Jefferson County, the Court House in Charles Town is the first logical place to stop for public records. However, some records were lost, stolen, or destroyed and others are not accessible at this location. Consult Chapter 3. Public Records for the location of available materials.

Other useful sites for microfilmed public records include Shepherd College Library, the Berkeley County Historical Society, Martinsburg Public Library, West Virginia University Library (Morgantown), and the West Virginia Division of Archives and History (Charleston). The libraries at Harpers Ferry National Historical Park and the Harpers Ferry Design Center also have substantial microfilm collections, but are open to the public by appointment only. Holdings for these institutions are described in more detail in their respective sections of Chapter 2. Libraries and Museums. Although the Old Charles Town Library has an
impressive collection of works on local history, it has no microfilm resources and therefore few public records.

Indexes have been published for many public records. Several are listed below. These resources can be very useful, but they are secondary sources and may contain typographical or transcription errors.

Births and Deaths

Birth and death records for Jefferson County are not available before 1853. Records after this date are accessible at the Jefferson County Court House. Vital statistics for the period from 1917 to 1921 are also missing due to a fire at the state capitol.

Useful secondary sources include:

Link, J. Lester. Index of Names Appearing in the Birth Records of Jefferson County, Virginia and West Virginia. Published by the author, 1973.

West Virginia. West Virginia Historic Records Survey, 1750-1939. Copies of records from each county in West Virginia. Includes registers of births, deaths, marriages, wills, estate settlements, and land records; transcriptions of county and circuit court order books and minute books; cemetery readings and registers; church record surveys; calendars of the papers of West Virginia Governors; and American Imprint Inventory slips of the holdings of several West Virginia libraries. West Virginia Regional History Collection. Accession No. 46.

West Virginia. West Virginia Vital Statistics, ca. 1853-1862. Microfilm of birth, death and marriage records from 50 West Virginia counties. Originals located in Virginia State Library, Richmond. West Virginia Regional History Collection. Accession No. 968.

Other resources such as newspaper obituaries and tombstone inscriptions may serve as useful supplements to public records, but they should be used with caution because they contain some inaccuracies.

Marriages

Marriage records for Jefferson County are available at the Court House in Charles Town, West Virginia. The records have been microfilmed and are available through West Virginia University, the West Virginia Division of Archives and History, and the Genealogical Society of Utah.

Several useful supplements include:

Lester J. Link. Marriages, Jefferson County, Virginia and West Virginia, 1801-1880. Charles Town, WV: Published by the author, 1973. Old Charles Town Library. This is a 650-page transcription from the original marriage records. Alphabetically arranged.
“Licenses for Marriages. 1833 to 1851. Performed by John T. Hargrave, the Presbyterian Pastor at Shepherdstown.” Magazine of the Jefferson County Historical Society, 11 (1945), 30-33.

Price, James C. (comp.) List of Marriages in Jefferson County from 1801 to 1853. Compiled from The Independent, Shepherdstown, West Virginia. The Author, 1998. (Available at Shepherd College Library). These works are transcriptions and may contain errors. Church records (q.v.) serve as another important source for vital statics and can supplement or corroborate information obtained from other sources.

Wills

Will books for Jefferson County (1801 and after) are available in the Jefferson County Clerk's Office and on microfilm at other locations. (See Chapter 3. Public Records). For wills filed before 1801, check Jefferson County's antecedents: Berkeley County (Martinsburg, WV, 1772-1801), Frederick County (Winchester, VA, 1738-1772), and Orange County (1734 to 1738).

Dale Walton Morrow's Wills of Jefferson County, West Virginia: An Index, 1801-1899, is a useful finding aid.

Land Records

Many land records for Jefferson County (1801 to the present) are available at the Jefferson County Clerk's Office, in Charles Town, West Virginia. Researchers wishing to find earlier records should examine the resources of Jefferson County's antecedents and determine their location in Chapter 3. Public Records. A useful research tool for locating plats of Jefferson County records is Michael D. Thompson's Calendar and Index to Recorded Survey Plats in Jefferson County, West Virginia (West Virginia): Courthouse, 1801-1901. Land grants for Jefferson County are available in the Explorer Database. Land grants have been indexed by Galtjo L. Geertsema in Cadastral Index maps of Berkeley, Jefferson, and Morgan Counties, West Virginia, and other sections of Old Frederick County, Virginia, Old Frederick County, Virginia. The plats are presented in his Land Grants [Jefferson and Berkeley Counties].

Census Records

The census records for Virginia in 1790 and 1800 are missing, as is the 1890 census for West Virginia. See Max Grove's Reconstructed Census 1774-1810, Berkeley County, Virginia (Colesville, MD, 1970) for useful information. Dale Walton Morrow and Deborah Jensen Morrow compiled Jefferson County, West Virginia: Complete Census 1810 / Jefferson County (Virginia), West Virginia in 1983. The 1890 Special Census of Union Veterans and Their Widows provides some useful information.

The 1850 Census of Jefferson County, Virginia, has been reprinted in the Magazine of the Jefferson County Historical Society, 51 (1990). A searchable, electronic version of the 1850 census is available in the Explorer Database. Janet Comuzie compiled The 1860 West Virginia Mortality Schedules, Persons Who Died During the Year Ending 1st June 1860 in West Virginia., 1984. William A. March compiled the 1880 Census of West Virginia, 1981-1983. Another useful resource is the 1870 Census Index: County of Jefferson. Bountiful, UT: Precision Indexing, 1989. Mortality schedules were included in each census taken between 1850 and 1880, providing information on persons who had died during the census year. An 1880 school census was also taken which includes only information on families having children under age 10.

Slave census records were compiled in 1850 and 1860, but they generally include only the name of their owner and the ages (or age ranges) of his slave(s).

With the exceptions just noted, Census records for Jefferson County are currently available up to 1920. Subsequent census records will each be made public as they become 70 years old.

Bible Records

Two types of Bible records may be encountered: records of births, deaths, and marriages entered in family Bibles by a family member when the event occurred; and similar kinds of information that have been copied into a Bible from other sources. Original entries show evidence that they were made over a long period of time, often by several persons. Transcriptions, copied in a uniform hand, are subject to the same kinds of errors found is other secondary sources.

Secondary Sources

Where primary sources for vital statistics are missing, newspapers, tombstone inscriptions, and indexes or compilations of these materials may prove useful. Marriage notices (often listed under “Marriages” or“Married”) normally included the name and residence of the groom, the name, residence, and parents of the bride, and the name of the minister performing the ceremony.

Death notices, listed under “Death,” “Deaths,” “Obituaries,” and related terms, are often very brief, listing the name, date of death, and immediate family. More prominent persons may also have a more detailed obituary published in addition to (or instead of) a death notice. Since local newspapers were closed during the Civil War, obituaries of many persons who died during the period were not immediately published. Starting in 1865, some newspapers, such as the Spirit of Jefferson, began printing these older obituaries. Local newspapers printed in 1865 and 1866 frequently contain death notices for soldiers who had returned home after the war and died from their wounds.

Some marriage and death notices are included in the Bibliography compact disc that accompanies this reference work. Other newspaper abstracts, are included in the Explorer Database.

See also, High, Beth (comp.). Marriages and Deaths from The Farmer's Repository, 1825 and 1826, Charles Town, Virginia (now West Virginia). [Charleston, WV]: B. High, [1990]. Histories of several Smithfield (Middleway) families can be found in Robert L. Bates' The Story of Smithfield (Middleway), Jefferson County, West Virginia.

General Resources

Helen S. Stinson's Handbook for Genealogical Research in West Virginia, is a valuable work that surveys the information resources available to genealogists in West Virginia. It contains guidelines for novices, hints on where to find and how to interpret information, and the contents of various repositories. The resources of several counties (not Jefferson County) are described in detail. Genealogies in the Library of Congress (1972) also provides useful information as does LC's Internet accessible catalog.

NEXT: 11. Land Grants