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I hope you find these resources helpful in your search for your ancestors. The links are on the left. If you have any resources that you consider helpful, please let me know.
Area resources of Frederick County, Virginia
To add information, email maloneys7193@gmail.com
Patsy Cline
Winchester & Frederick County Museums
Old Courthouse Civil War Museum
Shenandoah Valley Genealogical Society
Frederick County Genealogist Susan McCabe
Belle Grove Plantation
Clarke County Historical Association online
archives
Frederick County Clerk's Office
5 N. Kent Street
Winchester, VA 22601
540-667-5770
Their holdings:Clerk of the Circuit Court has birth records from 1853 to 1912, marriage records from 1782, death records from 1853, divorce records from 1870 and probate and land records from 1743. Frederick's records begin 1744 while Winchester's began 1790 and they are much smaller in volume as the town size did not change from 1754 until 1905.
Land and probate records for Winchester begin 1790, Marriage bonds for Winchester in 1790 and some marriage licenses for period 1843-1855. There are also a few birth and death records from 1855 to 1870. Unlike Frederick records, many of these records for Winchester were destroyed during the Civil War. The hours for both clerk's offices are 9 to 5, M-F and microfilm copies of many records are also available in the Archives Room of the Handley Library in Winchester.
The records for the City of Winchester are housed at the same address as the Clerk of the Winchester Circuit Court and the Clerk of the Frederick County Circuit Court are both housed together in the Frederick-Winchester Judicial Center, 5 N. Kent Street, Winchester, VA 22601 and the phone number for both is 540-667-5770
Stewart Bell Jr. Archives Room
Handley
Regional Library
100 West Piccadilly Street
Winchester-Frederick County Historical Society
P.O. Box 58
Winchester, VA 22604
Phone: (540) 662-9041
Fax: (540)
722-4769
Email for Archives Room: archives@hrl.lib.state.va.us
Handley Regional Library Main Page
If you live
in the area or plan to visit in the SHENANDOAH VALLEY,
you are invited to research in the Stewart Bell Jr. Archives
of the Handley Regional
Library in Winchester.
It is a public library and archives that serves
Winchester, Frederick County and Clarke County, VA. Recognized
as one of
the best research centers in the
region, Handley is located at the corner of
Braddock and Piccadilly Streets.
What is in
the collection? Materials on people, places and events of the
Lower Shenandoah Valley from 1732 to present. The collection
houses archival
material from both the Handley
Library and the Winchester-Frederick County
Historical Society. There are extensive local histories and
genealogical
books on families who live or have
lived in this area. A Surname Index lists
individual families who are named in over 200 genealogical books in
the
collection. This saves a lot of research
time from not having to scan
manually through
indexes of several hundred books. Also, there is a database
of names and addresses of individual researchers by surname.
Over 500
linear feet of manuscripts and ephemera are housed in the Archives.
These holdings include account books, funeral home records,
diaries, and
correspondence. The Archives
maintains an excellent collection of 100 maps
(some rare), including three maps of the area by Jedediah Hotchkiss,
Stonewall Jackson's mapmaker, plus 4,000 photographs.
U.S. Census
records are maintained for Counties in the Lower Shenandoah
Valley, from 1790-1920. Indexes for Virginia and West
Virginia counties
enable the researcher to
quickly find the people they are researching.
Handley
Archives has one of the best NEWSPAPER collections for a regional
public library. The Winchester Star is available on
microfilm beginning in
1896. These papers are
important for those seeking information on
deaths--obituaries-- during a period of almost 2 decades at the turn
of the
20th century when death records were not
collected by the Commonwealth nor
the Counties.
Twenty additional newspapers are available to researchers,
some by microfilm and others by the original copies. These
date from 1787 to
present.
Virginia
Gazette and Winchester Advertizer 1787-1791
Virginia Centinel or Winchester Mercury
1788-1790
Winchester Political Repository
1790-1791
Willis's Gazette and the Winchester
Centinel 1796
Winchester
Gazette
1802-1824
The Philanthropist
1808
Republican Constellation
1810-1817
Winchester Republican (destroyed by
Union in 1862) 1821-1862
Winchester
Virginian (destroyed by Union in 1862) 1828-1862
Winchester Journal
1865-1869
Winchester News
1865-1869
Winchester Times
1866-1905
Winchester Sentinel
1869-1870
People's Voice
1880-1881
Winchester Leader
1884-1899
Daily Item
1896-1897
Winchester Star
1898-present
Evening News Item
1896-1897
Morning News Item
1906-1907
Daily Independent
1923-1925
Also in Handley, Shenandoah County
newspapers are available on microfilm for
the
1817-1914 period.
Archives
staff will answer correspondence if the request is clearly defined.
Extensive research cannot be undertaken because of limited
staff time. For
in-depth searches, a list of
local researchers will be provided upon
request.
A self-addressed, stamped envelope should accompany all queries.
There is a charge for photocopies. Correspondence should be
addressed to:
Mrs.
Rebecca Ebert, Archivist
The Handley Regional
Library
P.O. Box 58
Winchester, VA 22604
(540) 662-9041
For those
doing colonial research (prior to the Revolutionary War), you are
reminded that the Frederick County Courthouse in Winchester
maintains
records from 1743 onward. Frederick is
NOT a "Burned County." If you need to
do a
deeper level of research in certain areas, you should be aware that
many kinds of original records are maintained by the Library
of Virginia in
Richmond. An inventory of the
Frederick County holdings is available from
the
LoV. As you may know, Old Frederick County consisted of 12
present-day
counties, viz. Frederick, Hampshire,
Berkeley, Clarke, Shenandoah, Page,
Hardy,
Morgan, Jefferson, Grant, Mineral and Warren. The Frederick County
Court served the people in all of these counties prior to
their formations.
We hope that your visit to our
beautiful Shenandoah Valley and Commonwealth
of
Virginia will be enjoyable and productive. Virginia is for Lovers.
Wilmer L. Kerns
Former Volunteer Archivist
The Handley Regional Library
| Hopewell Friends History, 1734-1934, Frederick County, Virginia. | Lynn Dever |
| FREDERICK COUNTY, VA SETTLEMENT AND SOME FIRST FAMILIES OF BACK CREEK VALLEY 1730-1830 by Dr. Wilmer L. Kern (1995) | Tom Berg |
| PIONEERS OF OLD
FREDERICK COUNTY, VIRGINIA by Cecil O'Dell ( 1995) |
Tom Berg |
| I have several books that
may contain information on some of the early settlers of
Frederick County that came from other regions. I can do
lookups.... Pennsylvania German Immigrants, 1709-1786, edited by Don Yoder. Berks County Church Records of the 18th Century, Vol. 3, by F. Edward Wright Maryland Marriages, 1634-1777, compiled by Robert Barnes Early Lutheran
Baptisms and Marriages in Southeastern Pennsylvania: The Records of Reed's Cemetery, Strouchburg, PA, published by Tulpehocken Settlement Historical Society. |
Vivian |
|
“Shenandoah Valley Pioneers and Their Descendants-A History of Frederick County, Virginia” by T. K. Cartmell the Clerk of the Old County Court, 1909 “Some Worthy Lives” by Garland R. Quarles, 1988 “German Origins of Jost Hite-Virginia Pioneer” Shenandoah Genealogical Source Book No. 3 Authors: Henry Z. Jones, Jr., Ralph Connor, Klaus Wust, 1979. “Virginia Valley Records” by John W. Wayland, 1930 “Abstract of Land Grant Surveys, Augusta & Rockingham Counties, 1761-1791” by Peter Cline Kaylor Assisted by George Warren Chappelear, 1938. “1815 Directory of Virginia Landowners (and Gazetteer) Volume Four: Northern Region Abstracted by Roger G. Ward, 1999 “Fairfax Land Suit” Transcript of Copy in the British Museum, By Hunter Branson McKay, 1951 Frederick County Marriage Records 1772-1823” Volume I By: Sidney Marie Feathers “What I Know About Winchester” Recollections of William Greenway Russell, 1800-1891 Volume II: Winchester-Frederick County Historical Society Papers Made possible by Farmers and Merchants Bank of Winchester, Virginia, 1953 “The Streets of Winchester, Virginia: The Origin and Significance of Their Names” By Garland R. Quarles, Prepared for The Farmers and Merchants National Bank, Winchester, Virginia A recent presentation on the Street Names of Winchester “A History of the Valley of Virginia” By Samuel Kercheval, 1909 “The Story of Winchester In Virginia”, By Frederick Morton, 1925 “Winchester Virginia And Its Beginnings, 1743-1814” By Katherine Glass Greene 1926 “History of the Descendants Jacob Gochenour”By Robert Lee Evans 1977 "This Heritage” Expanded Edition 1753-2003 By William Edward Eisenberg Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church Winchester, Virginia 2003 “Frederick County, Virginia Wills & Administrations 1795-1816” Compiled By: M. N. Kangas & D. E. Payne 1983 “Frederick County, Virginia: History Through Architecture” By Maral S. Kalbian Published by Winchester-Frederick County Historical Society Rural Landmarks Publication Committee 1999 “Shenandoah Marriage Bonds-1772-1853” Typed by the Genealogical Society of Utah Typist: James M. Black 1939 “Fauquier During the Proprietorship”, A Chronicle of the Colonization & Organization of a Northern Neck County By H. C. Groome 1927 (Good accounts of the Land Proprietor, Thomas Lord Fairfax’s influence in Frederick and surrounding counties.) “The German Element Of The Shenandoah Valley of Virginia” By John W. Wayland |
Charolette “Chocy” Brown P.O. Box 211508 Chula Vista, CA 91914 I will do “limited” look-ups as my time permits. Please request one surname and one source book. If your surname is common, please include a given name and always give as much information as you have especially concerning the timeframe. |
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| A Guide to the Frederick County (Va.) Free Negro and Slave |
Wilmer L. Kerns, Ph.D. has published 3 books pertaining to the Old Frederick Co., VA area.
"Historical Records of Old
Frederick and Hampshire Counties, Virginia " (Revised),
Heritage Books, Inc, 1992. This book contains, among other things,
Historical and Genealogical Records, Ministerial Bonds; Business
Licenses - Ordinary Bonds 1795-1799; Ordinary Bonds 1800-1840; Mill
Owners in Old Frederick County; Kidwell Genealogy and History of
Little Cacapon Primitive Baptist Church. (Indexed)
"Frederick County, Virginia: Settlement and Some First Families of Back Creek Valley, 1730-1830", Gateway Press, Inc, 1995. History of settlement: Indians and settlers; wagon roads, ordinaries and taverns; site selection, housing, and old houses; naming of rivers and streams; mill owners; religion and churches, cultural and physical geography, with maps developed by cartographer Sam Lehman, and relationship of Back Creek with surrounding settlements.
Some of the primary surnames, which cover 2-6 generations of Genealogical history are: Adams, Allemong, Anderson, Babb, Dalby, DeHaven, Dunlap, Harris, Haworth, Jenkins, Julian, Kerns, Larrick, Lockhart, McKee, Peacemaker, Printzler, Pugh, Purtlebaugh, Shane, Sine, Taylor, Trowbridge, Walker, Whitacre, Wright and others.(Indexed) (on line Index)
"Shanholtzer History and Allied Families Roots in Hampshire County, W.VA and Frederick county, VA". Includes eleven generatons of desc. Of Johannes Schoenholtzer, the German immigrant who settled in Chester Co., Pa, in 1727. Contains 223 pictures, most of which represent the earlier generations of people born 1792-1900 and much, much more. (Indexed)
Dr. Kerns, a native of the Shenandoah Valley, Has done extensive research in the Old Frederick Co., VA area over the past several years and has gained a vast amount of knowledge of the area.
If you would like more information
regarding these books, you can e-mail Wilmer
Kerns
"A History of the Nurses' Training School of Winchester Memorial Hospital, 1903-1964" Author of the book is Michael M. Foreman
"Life Along Holman's Creek", published in 1982 by Commercial Press, Stephens City, VA. Author of the book is Joseph Floyd Wine, a local historian.
Pioneers of old Frederick County, Virginia
Cecil O'Dell, pub. 1995 .
If you have questions, contributions, or problems with this site, email:
Coordinator - Rebecca Maloney
State Coordinator: Jeff Kemp
Asst. State Coordinators:
If you have questions or problems with this site, email the County Coordinator. Please to not ask for specfic research on your family. I am unable to do your personal research.