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.
Neighboring States
Recent Virginia Genealogy
Heritage Public Library Collection of Yearbooks
Bedford Public Library Collection of Yearbooks
Virginia Land Bounty Certificates for Service in the French and Indian Wars
History of the Baptist Church in Virginia
Virginia Baptists trace their historical roots to several groups of adult baptizers in early seventeenth-century England, some of whom had previously spent time in Holland. Three distinct types of Baptists initially planted the faith in the colony, at a multiplicity of points. The earliest congregations in Virginia were supported by missionaries from England known as the General Baptists. This branch of the faith was Arminian in orientation, believing that God issued a general offer of salvation to mankind. In their view individuals were invested with free will to accept or reject God’s gift of eternal life. There had been some…
The Origin and Progress of the Regular Baptists
One of the three original companies of Baptists that emigrated to Virginia came from Maryland. From these arose the Regular Baptists, as they were for a season called in contradistinction to the Separates. These, though not so numerous as the Separates, are a large and very respectable body of people; for, with very few did they come into Virginia, and now they are become several Associations. Besides the Ketocton, which is a very extensive Association, the Red Stone, Greenbrier and Union all sprung from the same source. Our papers do not exactly agree respecting the date at which the first…
History of the Accomac Association, including the Sketches of the Churches
The Accomac Association district lies altogether on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. The Gospel was first carried thither by Elijah Baker. After Mr. Baker had planted a number of churches both on the Eastern Shore of Maryland and Virginia, and had been joined by other preachers from different parts, as well as by young ones raised under his ministry, he proposed that the churches should meet by their delegates and form an Association. This they did anno 1784. They took the name of the Salisbury Association from the town of that name in Maryland where they met. They also became…