History of Virginia

The following sources may prove useful to those researching Virginia genealogy. For a more extensive listing, consult the online catalog beginning with the words “Virginia–History.”

Websites

http://www.vcdh.virginia.edu/index.php?page=VCDH	Virginia Center for Digital History. Website. University of Virginia. 2002. Sponsors and hosts historical projects such as The Valley of the Shadow Project, The Virtual Jamestown Archive, the Virginia Emigrants to Liberia Project, and The Geography of Slavery.
http://www.virginia.org/home.asp	Virginia Is For Lovers: Vacation in Virginia. Virginia Tourism Website. (more Genealogical weblinks under Attractions / History and Heritage / Genealogy)

Books

Alderman Stacks F229 .B43 1969	Bean, Robert Bennett. The peopling of Virginia. Boston : Crescendo pub. co., [1969, c1938] A demographic study of the colonial period, and who settled where in Virginia. Describes county organization. Many names of early families and settlers are mentioned. Index. Bibliography: p. 263-264.
Alderman Stacks & Clemons Stacks F229 .B613 1986	Billings, Warren M. Colonial Virginia : a history. White Plains, N.Y. : KTO Press, c1986.Bibliography: p. [375]-400. Includes index.
Alderman Stacks F221 .B72 1903	Boogher, William Fletcher. Gleanings of Virginia history. Washington, D.C.: W. F. Boogher, 1903.A miscellany of Virginia records, historical notes, and a few Virginia genealogies.
Alderman Reference Z1345 .C25	Cappon, Lester Jesse. Bibliography of Virginia history since 1865. Charlottesville, University of Virginia Institute for Research in the Social Sciences, 1930.”The word ‘history’ was interpreted in its broadest sense to include every phase of man’s activity and thought.” — Preface. Includes bibliographies and index.
Gov Info Virginia VSL 3/P 96/22/1979Alderman Stacks & Reference BX 5918 .S59 C6	Cocke, Charles Francis. Parish lines, Diocese of Southern Virginia. Richmond : Virginia State Library, [1979]Reprint of the 1964 edition; 3rd impression, 1996.
Special Collections BX5918 .S922 C6 1980	Cocke, Charles Francis. Parish lines, Diocese of Southwestern Virginia. Richmond : Virginia State Library, 1980.First edition 1960; reprinted by the Virginia State Library 1980. Bibliography: p. 179-180.
Alderman Reference BX5918.V8 C6Gov Info Virginia VSL 3/P 96/28	Cocke, Charles Francis. Parish lines, Diocese of Virginia. Richmond, Virginia State Library, 1967. “Parish changes of 1967”: p. 275-276; bibliography: p. 271-274. Cocke’s three works give a historical review of Virginia Episcopal parishes from colonial times to the present. Helpful in tracking down parish records by clarifying parish structure. Maps; index.
Alderman Reference & Geostat Center G1291.F7 D6 1987	Doran, Michael F. Atlas of county boundary changes in Virginia, 1634-1895. Athens, GA : Iberian Publishing Company, c1987.Includes bibliographical references. Evolution of Virginia’s first-order boundary — Crystallizing and stabilizing second-order boundaries — Extinct polities of Virginia — Ogive of Virginia county formation.
Alderman Stacks & Reference BX 5917 .V8 G6 1927	Goodwin, Edward Lewis. The colonial church in Virginia, with biographical sketches of the first six bishops of the diocese of Virginia, and other historical papers, together with brief biographical sketches of the colonial clergy of Virginia. Milwaukee: Morehouse Publishing Company, 1927. Chiefly a history with biographical sketches of clergy. Part 2 includes “List of the Colonial Clergy in Virginia” and “Table of Counties, Parishes, and Ministers.”
Alderman Reference F 226 .H8 1994Gov Info Reading Room VSL 2/H 62/994	The hornbook of Virginia history : a ready-reference guide to the Old Dominion’s people, places, and past. 4th ed. Richmond : Library of Virginia, 1994. Summarizes basic information about Virginia and its history. Includes a bibliography of Virginia historical sources. Most helpful to genealogists for its explanation of the counties, listing extinct counties and historical evolution of existing ones. Includes bibliographical references and index.
Alderman Stacks F226 .H84 1969	Howe, Henry. Historical collections of Virginia; containing a collection of the most interesting facts, traditions, biographical sketches, anecdotes, &c., relating to its history and antiquities, together with geographical and statistical descriptions. To which is appended an historical and descriptive sketch of the District of Columbia. Reprinted with a new index. Baltimore, Regional Pub. Co., 1969. Reprint of the 1845 ed. Contains general historical information on Virginia, with a description and history of each county. Mentions prominent people. Brief index.
Alderman Stacks & Reference F 229 .K26 1938	Kegley, Frederick Bittle. Kegley’s Virginia frontier; the beginning of the Southwest; the Roanoke of colonial days, 1740-1783. Roanoke, Va.: The Southwest Virginia Historical Society, 1938. An important history of the area. The work contains numerous references to wills, deeds, marriages, surveys, and grants. Comprehensive index.
Alderman Stacks & Special Collections Diss. 0505	Manahan, John E. The cavalier remounted; a study of the origins of Virginia’s population 1607-1700. Ph.D. Diss. University of Virginia, 1946.A study of English immigrants. Appendix IV: “List of Voyages to Virginia with Many Passengers Listed, 1607-1700.”
Alderman Stacks & Reference F225 .M485 1910	Meade, William. Old churches, ministers, and families of Virginia. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company, [1910]. 2 vols. A Virginia family history, first published in 1857, based on family, church, and court records. Bound in at end of volume 2: Jennings Cropper Wise, Wire’s Digested Index and Genealogical Guide to Bishop Meade’s Old Churches, Ministers, and Families of Virginia (Richmond, 1910).
Alderman Stacks & Reference F229 .M7 1960	Morton, Richard Lee. Colonial Virginia. Chapel Hill, Published for the Virginia Historical Society by the University of North Carolina Press, 1960. 2 vols. A comprehensive history of colonial Virginia. Includes maps and bibliographies. v. 1. The Tidewater period, 1607-1710.–v. 2. Westward expansion and prelude to Revolution, 1710-1763. Index in volume 2.
Alderman Stacks & Clemons Stacks F 229 .N84 1994	Noel Hume, Ivor. The Virginia adventure : Roanoke to James Towne : an archaeological and historical odyssey. New York : Knopf, c1994.
Special Collections F 226 .S75 1892	South-west Virginia and the Valley, historical and biographical. Roanoke, Va., A.D. Smith & Co., 1892.Historical sketches of the various counties and cities of the area; biographical sketches of citizens prominent at the time of publication. Index.
Alderman Stacks F226 .S82 1929	Summers, Lewis Preston. Annals of southwest Virginia, 1769-1800. Abingdon, Va.: L. P. Summers, 1929. 2 vols. Includes deeds, wills, marriage records, land records, etc., of Botetourt, Fincastle, Montgomery, Washington, and Wythe counties. Revolutionary soldier list. Personal name index.
Alderman Stacks F232.W3 S92 1903	Summers, Lewis Preston. History of southwest Virginia, 1746-1786, Washington County, 1777-1870. Richmond: J. L. Hill Printing Company, 1903. Contains abstracts from some Botetourt and Washington County records.
Alderman Reference F 221 .V5 1968	Virginia. Calendar of Virginia state papers and other manuscripts … preserved in the Capitol at Richmond. Richmond, 1875-93. Reprint; New York : Kraus Reprint Corp., 1968. 11 v.Primary source material for early Virginia history. Includes land patents and other documents. Indexed in Swem’s Virginia Historical Index.Contents: v. 1. 1652-1781 — v. 2. April 1-December 31, 1781 — v. 3. January 1, 1782-December 31, 1784 — v. 4. January 1, 1785-July 2, 1789 — v. 5. July 2, 1790-August 10, 1792 — v. 6. August 11, 1792-December 31, 1793 — v. 7. January 1, 1794-May 16, 1795 — v. 8. May 16, 1795-December 31, 1798. Letters and proceedings of the Committee of Correspondence and Inquiry of Virginia and the other colonies, March 12, 1773-April 7, 1775. Journal of the Committee of Safety of Virginia, February 7-July 5, 1776 — v. 9. January 1, 1799-December 31, 1807 — v. 10. January 1, 1808-December 31, 1835 — v. 11. January 1, 1836-April 15, 1869.
Alderman Stacks F229 .V73	Virginia. General Court. Virginia colonial decisions. The reports by Sir John Randolph and by Edward Barradall, of decisions of the general court of Virginia, 1728-1741. Boston: The Boston Book Company, 1909. 2 vols. Decided cases of the chief court of Virginia, 1729-43. The introduction has extensive descriptions of the government, the development of cities, the church, and the law and courts of the time. Good background material for research in this period. Index of names.
Law Library Reference G1290 .V57 2000	Virginia in maps : four centuries of settlement, growth, and development. Richmond : The Library of Virginia, 2000.Includes bibliographical references (p. 320-322) and index.
Alderman Reference K .V471 1700-50	Virginia. Laws, etc. (Compiled statutes : 1950). The laws of Virginia; being a supplement to Hening’s The statutes at large, 1700-1750. Ed. Waverly K. Winfree. Richmond, Virginia State Library, 1971.”The … laws were, for the most part, transcribed from photographic copies of the originals in the British Public Record Office … This material comprises laws either not found in Hening’s The statutes at large … for the period 1700-1750, or, if there, appear in abbreviated form or by title only.”
Alderman Reference K .V471 1619-1792 1969 ed.http://vagenweb.org/hening/	Virginia. Laws, etc. (Compiled statutes : 1950). The statutes at large; being a collection of all the laws of Virginia, from the first session of the Legislature in the year 1619. Ed. William Waller Hening. [Charlottesville, Published for the Jamestown Foundation of the Commonwealth of Virginia by the University Press of Virginia, 1969]. 13 vols.Indexed in Swem.Contents: 1. 1619-1660–2. 1660-1682–3. 1684-1710.–4. 1711-1736.–5. 1738-1748.–6. 1748-1755.–7. 1756-1763. Proclamations of 1754 and 1763.–8. 1764-1773.–9. 1775-1778.–10. 1779-1781. Resolutions and State papers from 1779 to 1781.–11. 1782-1784. Resolutions and State papers from 1782 to 1784.–12. 1785-1788.–13. 1789-1792. Each vol. includes a list of Governors of Virginia for the period covered by the vol.Facsim. reprint of v. 1-4 of the 2d ed. and of v. 5-13 of the 1st and only ed. Vols. 1-2: New York, 1823; v. 3: Philadelphia, 1823; v. 4: Richmond, 1820; v. 5-12: Richmond, 1819-23; v. 13: Philadelphia, 1823.All thirteen volumes of Hening have been converted to an electronic format and are available, with an index, at this site.
Alderman Reference K .V471 1792-1808 1835	Virginia. Laws, etc. The statutes at large of Virginia, from October session 1792, to December session 1806 [i.e. 1807], inclusive, in three volumes, (new series,) being a continuation of Hening. Ed. Samuel Shepherd. Richmond: S. Shepherd, 1835-36. 3 vols.Contents: I. Oct. 1792-Dec. 1795.–II. Nov. 1796-Jan. 1803.–III. Dec. 1803-Jan. 1808.An index to the personal names contained in these volumes was published in 1896, in an edition of 100 copies, under title: Personal names in Hening’s Statutes at large of Virginia and Shepherd’s continuation. By Joseph J. Casey, A.m. New York, 1896.They are valuable for land patents, lists of soldiers, and other records of early Virginians. Hening’s is indexed in Swem’s Virginia Historical Index.
Alderman Stacks F232 .S5 W3	Wayland, John Walter. The German element of the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. Charlottesville, Va.: Michie Book Company, 1907. (Ph.D. 1907, UVa)A brief history of the German element in the Valley, including a bibliography, a listing of some important county records, and an index. Bibliography: p. 237-272.
Alderman Stacks & Reference F 226 .V894 1992http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/VAGuide/frame.html	Virginia : a guide to the Old Dominion. Richmond : Virginia State Library and Archives in cooperation with the Virginia Center for the Book, 1992. Reprint of 1940 ed. Brief histories of Virginia and its major cities. Chiefly a tour guide. Long but dated bibliography on Virginia. Index. Also available online.