Virginia Genealogy is being developed as a genealogical and historical resource for your personal use. It contains information and records for Virginia ancestry, family history, and genealogy. Specifically, it provides sources for birth records, death records, marriage records, census records, tax records, court records, and military records. It also provides some historical details about different times and people in Virginia history.
Virginia County Names
Virginia County Names: Two hundred and seventy years of Virginia History
This book aims to tell how the Virginia counties got their names, and in telling the story it endeavors to show that the thoughts and feelings of the Virginians are reflected in the names the counties bear.
In the unfolding of this story I have been impressed, first, by the amount of history suggested by the names; and, second, by the fact that the naming of the Virginia counties furnishes more material for colonial history than the county-naming of any other State in the Union. Of course the history suggested in this way falls far short of being a history of Virginia, but it is not too much to claim that these county-namings are interesting and helpful in presenting some parts of the history of the Old Dominion from a new point of view. The names are the magnet; the facts of Virginia history are the iron filings: it has been my part to put the magnet among the filings.
I have been at much pains in my efforts to verify the facts herein presented, and when in doubt I have endeavored to attach to my statements the exact measure of doubt that I myself entertained.
To include all the facts that have a bearing on Virginia county names I have gone back in Scotch history to 1370; and have brought my work up to date by showing that among the exhibits of the Jamestown Exposition of 1907 were many honoring men after whom Virginia counties had been named.
The second part of the title of the book, “Two hundred and seventy years of Virginia History,” is given because of the fact that, with reference to Virginia history, I begin with 1607 and end, as far as the naming of the counties is concerned, with 1880, when the youngest county of the State was organized.
Recent Virginia Genealogy
The Alexander family traced its origins to Scotland and later Ulster before several members emigrated to America in the eighteenth century. Archibald Alexander, born in Ireland in 1708, came first to Pennsylvania and then settled on the South River in Virginia about 1747. His descendants became closely associated with Timber Ridge, Rockbridge County government, Washington College, the Presbyterian Church, and several prominent educational institutions.
The Preston family was among the early Scotch-Irish families associated with the settlement of the central Shenandoah Valley. John Preston, a shipmaster from Dublin, Ireland, came to Virginia with Colonel James Patton and lived for a time at Spring Hill before establishing a home near Staunton. Through his children and grandchildren, the family became connected with the Breckenridge, Brown, McDowell, Smith, and Howard families and produced descendants prominent in religion, law, politics, and western migration.
The McDowell family was among the early settlers of the Timber Ridge area of Rockbridge County, Virginia. Ephraim McDowell arrived with his family in 1737, accompanied by his sons James and John and his daughter Mary, wife of James Greenlee. Through the next several generations, the family became associated with frontier settlement, land surveying, military service, county government, and several prominent Virginia families.
Members of the Vance family appear among the early settlers and public figures of several Virginia frontier communities during the eighteenth century. James Vance was established at Opequon by the 1730s and married into the Glass family, while David Vance participated in the organization of Frederick County government. Later, John and Joseph Vance appear among the Presbyterian settlers of the Holston River valley. The surviving account does not establish the precise relationship among these different Vance families.
The Glass family was among the early Scotch-Irish families who settled along Opequon Creek in Frederick County, Virginia. Samuel Glass and his wife, Mary Gamble, came from County Down, Ireland, and established their home near the head spring of the Opequon in 1736. Their descendants remained closely associated with the creek valley, establishing homes at places known as Cherry Mead and Long Meadows, while other branches spread westward beyond the Allegheny Mountains.
The Hoge family was among the early Presbyterian families associated with the Opequon settlement in the northern Shenandoah Valley. William Hoge, a native of Paisley, Scotland, came to America as a young man and eventually settled with his family in Virginia about 1735. From this early household descended several families prominent in the religious and civic history of Frederick County and elsewhere in Virginia. The following account brings together the Hoge family references scattered throughout William Henry Foote’s Sketches of Virginia: Historical and Biographical, Second Series, arranging them by generation and family relationship.
Neighboring States
