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 tells the story of how Virginia’s counties received their names and, through those names, explores the history, thoughts, and sentiments of the people who named them. The county names themselves suggest a remarkable breadth of history and provide material for understanding Virginia’s colonial past from a perspective unlike that offered by the county names of any other state. While this is not intended as a history of Virginia, the names serve as a means of illuminating important portions of the Old Dominion’s history—the names being the magnet and the facts of Virginia history the iron filings drawn to them.
Every effort has been made to verify the facts presented and, where certainty was not possible, to indicate the degree of doubt involved. Because the origins and associations of Virginia’s county names extend far beyond the boundaries of the Commonwealth, the account reaches back as far as 1370 in Scottish history and forward to the Jamestown Exposition of 1907, where many men for whom Virginia counties were named were commemorated.
The subtitle, Two Hundred and Seventy Years of Virginia History, reflects the principal span of the narrative. It begins with the founding of Jamestown in 1607 and follows the naming of Virginia’s counties through 1880, when the state’s youngest county was organized.
Recent Virginia Genealogy
Virginia County Names: Two hundred and seventy years of Virginia History
Virginia County Names: Two hundred and seventy years of Virginia History 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.
Samuel Beery Hoover
Samuel Beery Hoover was a Harrisonburg certified public accountant, businessman, and farmer profiled in History of the Shenandoah Valley (1952). He led S. B. Hoover and Company, served the Wetsel Seed Company, managed farms including historic Fort Egypt Farm, and held civic, library, Rotary, professional, and Presbyterian affiliations. He and Mary Lucy Strickler had two children.
Sydney French Small
Sydney French Small (born October 31, 1893, in Norfolk) advanced through the Norfolk and Western Railway to become vice-president in 1935. He served as Roanoke’s mayor from 1934 to 1938, held leadership roles in regional businesses, served as a World War I Army Air Service lieutenant, and coordinated civilian defense during World War II. Married Nathalie Pace in 1922.
Benjamin Lee Kagey
Benjamin Lee Kagey of Lexington rose from banking positions in New Hope and Staunton to become president of Peoples National Bank of Lexington in 1949 and executive vice-president of the Bank of Glasgow. A Roanoke College graduate and former Air Service cadet, he led wartime, Red Cross, hospital, church, and fraternal activities. He married Bernice Eans and had one daughter.
George Dunglinson, Jr.
George Dunglinson, Jr. (1882–) was an English-born mining engineer who became executive vice-president of the Norfolk and Western Railway Company in Roanoke. The biography traces his career from Alabama Polytechnic Institute and West Virginia mining to railway leadership, civic involvement, business directorships, and family life with his wife, Marie Boyd, and daughter, Mary.
Colonel Charles S. Roller, Jr.
Colonel Charles S. Roller, Jr. continued his family’s longstanding educational tradition as owner and operator of Augusta Military Academy in Fort Defiance, Virginia. A Virginia Military Institute graduate and World War I Army veteran, he taught at several universities before purchasing the academy in 1949. The biography also details his family genealogy and son’s legacy at the school.
Carl H. Tabor
Carl H. Tabor rose from a railroad water boy in 1907 to vice-president and general manager of Norfolk and Western Railway in Roanoke. Born in Baptist Valley in 1893, he served as a Field Artillery officer during World War I and advanced through railroad management. His biography also notes his marriage to Una Lee Welsh, Methodist faith, and civic affiliations.
James Kirk Ring
James Kirk Ring led Roanoke City Mills as executive vice-president from 1941, following World War I officers’ training and a career in the family-owned flour and feed business. A Virginia Military Institute graduate, he also held banking, broadcasting, civic, and fraternal roles. He married Margie Davis in 1929, and they had one son, James Kirk Ring Jr.
Howard Johnston Benchoff
Howard Johnston Benchoff served as headmaster of Massanutten Academy in Woodstock, Virginia, from 1905, shaping education and community life in the Shenandoah Valley. A graduate of Franklin and Marshall College and Columbia University, he helped advance Shenandoah National Park, founded Woodstock’s Rotary Club, supported civic improvements, and served the Evangelical and Reformed Church.
Robert H. Smith
Robert H. Smith (1888–?) was a Baltimore native who built his entire railroad career with the Norfolk and Western Railway, advancing from chainman to president and director by 1946. A Princeton-trained civil engineer, he also served on corporate and educational boards. He and Mary Elizabeth Wysor had five children and lived in Roanoke, Virginia.
Hon. Floridus S. Crosby
Hon. Floridus S. Crosby was a Staunton lawyer and judge, born in 1893. After graduating from the University of Virginia Law School in 1917, he served as Commonwealth attorney and Corporation Court judge before becoming judge of Virginia’s Eighteenth Judicial Circuit in 1942. His civic, professional, and Episcopal Church service, along with his 1925 marriage to Martha Virginia Bell, are also documented.
