West Virginia Archives and Libraries: Difference between revisions

== Online Records of West Virginia  ==

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== National Repositories ==

=== [[Library of Congress]] ===

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:The Library of Congress "Local History and Genealogy Reading Room" has moved to the main reading room, but services are unchanged. They are part of the world's largest library including 50,000 genealogies, 100,000 local histories, and collections of manuscripts, microfilms, maps, newspapers, photographs, and published material, strong in North American (including '''West Virginia'''), British Isles, and German sources.<ref>[http://www.loc.gov/rr/genealogy/lhgcoll.html The Collections] in ''Local History and Genealogy Reading Room'' in ''The Library of Congress'' (accessed 8 January 2014).</ref><br><br>

=== [[National Archives and Records Administration|National Archives I]] ===

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:Nationwide (including '''West Virginia''') censuses, pre-WWI military service and pensions, passenger lists, naturalizations, passports, federal bounty land, homesteads, bankruptcy, ethnic sources, prisons, and federal employees. The National Archives Building in Washington, DC (Archives I), houses textual and microfilm records relating to genealogy, American Indians, pre-World War II military and naval-maritime matters, the New Deal, the District of Columbia, the Federal courts, and Congress.<ref>[http://www.archives.gov/dc-metro/washington/researcher-info.html Information for Researchers at the National Archives Building in Washington, DC] in ''National Archives'' (accessed 31 December 2013).</ref>

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=== [[National Archives at College Park, Maryland|National Archives II]]  ===

=== [[National Archives at Philadelphia]]  ===  

:This branch has federal agency and court records for Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and '''West Virginia'''. All U.S. federal censuses 1790-1940, and indexes. Also has passenger arrivals in Philadelphia 1800-1945 and Baltimore, pension and bounty land warrant applications, naturalizations 1790-1990, early federal history, diplomacy, military history, Chinese-Americans, World War II homefront, National Park Service, merchant marine, U.S. Army Corp of Engineers, federal tax evasion and smuggling cases.<ref name="DB12627">Dollarhide and Bremer, 126-27.</ref><br><br>

[[File:Washington National Records Center Stack Area with Employee Servicing Records.jpg|thumb|right|246px|WNRC stack area in Suitland, MD]]

=== Washington National Records Center ===

:Older than 15-years federal criminal court, federal civil court, and federal bankruptcy court records, and the federal agency records from the District of Columbia, Maryland, Virginia, and '''West Virginia'''.<ref name="DB29">Dollarhide and Bremer, 29.</ref><br><br>

=== [[West Virginia Archives and History]]  ===

:This the best place to start West Virginia genealogy research. They have manuscripts, biographies, county histories, and tax records.<ref name="DB117" /><br><br>

:*West Virginia '''divorce indexes''' 1967-present

:'''Certified copies.''' Certificates are hand abstracted from the original source document. The person on a certificate, parents, grandparents, wife, husband, child, grandchild, brother, or sister of the person on a certificate may request a copy. Close relatives can obtain certified copies of BMD, and divorce records from the West Virginia Vital Registration Office in these ways:<ref>[http://www.wvdhhr.org/bph/hsc/vital/birthcert.asp Requesting WV Vital Records] in ''Vital Registration'' in WV DHHR Health Statistics Center (accessed 15 May 2017).</ref>

:*'''Online, or by telephone, or fax.''' You can use a credit card to pay their fee and request express delivery of an official West Virginia certified copy of a vital record for an extra fee from the private company '''[https://www.vitalchek.com/birth-certificates/west-virginia/west-virginia-vital-registration VitalChek West Virginia]'''.

:'''Genealogical research.''' A good resource for West Virginia genealogical vital record information is the '''[[West Virginia Archives and History]] Library''' in Charleston. Among other sources, they have early (pre-1917) county birth and death records. For marriage records prior to 1964 contact the county clerk of the county where the license was obtained.<ref name="VRGen" />

== Regional Repositories  ==

=== Clarksburg-Harrison Public Library  ===

:This is a large genealogical collection with indexes, periodicals, histories, obituaries, cemeteries, and family folders.<ref name="DB117" /><br><br>

=== Parkersburg {{amp}} Wood County Public Library  ===

:West Augusta Historical and Genealogical Society's collection includes genealogies, family histories, cemetery transcripts, obituaries and family folders. Covers northwest West Virginia and parts of southwest Pennsylvania.<ref name="DB117" /><br><br>

West Virginia and Regional History Center<br>PO Box 6069<br>1549 University Ave<br>Morgantown, WV 26506-6069<br>Telephone: 304-293-3536 <br>Fax: 304-293-3981 <br>Website: [http://www.libraries.wvu.edu/wvcollection/ West Virginia Collection]

:World's largest collection of West Virginia-related research material including 4.5 million manuscript documents, 30,000 books, 15,000 pamphlets, 1,200 newspapers, 100,000 photographs and prints, 5,000 maps, 25,000 microfilms, and oral histories.<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Virginia_University_Libraries West Virginia University Libraries] in ''Wikipedia: the Free Encyclopedia'' (accessed 25 April 2016).</ref>

== Outside of West Virginia Respositories  ==

=== Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania  ===

:Colonial records of the Ohio Company with land grants and settlers since the 1750's in southwestern Pennsylvania and the area that became''' West Virginia'''.<ref name="DB117" /><br><br>

=== [[Library of Virginia]] ===

:The Library of Virginia is an important resource for pre-1863 '''West Virginia''' research. Their large genealogical collection has family Bibles, birth, marriages, deaths, divorces, histories, biographies, and newspapers. Many of their manuscripts are now online. The '''''General Library''''' contains printed materials, while the '''''Research and Information Services Division''''' consists of government records and other historical documents. Many collections are available '''''online''''', such as Confederate pensions, veterans and widows, an index to wills and administrations, Revolutionary War bounty land, and Virginia Land Office patents and grants.<ref name="DB97" /> <ref>[http://www.lva.virginia.gov/public/using_collections.asp#_guides Using the Collections] in ''Library of Virginia'' (accessed 7 January 2014).</ref><br><br>

=== [[Mary Ball Washington Museum and Library]] ===

:A small library with a good name index to nearly every history book published in Virginia, '''West Virginia''', or Kentucky, including court records from 1651, indexes and abstracts, Virginia vital records, census records, county histories, biographies, church and cemetery records, family histories, newspapers, obituaries, vertical files, militia records, and fraternal organizations.<ref name="DB117" /> <ref>[http://www.mbwm.org/genealogy.asp Genealogy and History Library] in ''Mary Ball Washington Museum and Library'' (accessed 7 January 2014).</ref><br><br>

=== [[Maryland State Archives]]  ===

=== [[New York Public Library]] ===

:This is one of the largest research libraries in the world, including excellent genealogical resources for '''West Virginia'''. The library has city and telephone directories, vital records indexes, local histories, genealogies, federal and state censuses, passenger lists, genealogical collections (including DAR transcripts), and church records.<ref name="DB81">Dollarhide and Bremer, 81.</ref> For maps, try the Map Division at the same address.<br><br>

=== [[Santa Cruz Public Library Downtown]] ===

:Holds the Genealogical Society of Santa Cruz County's library, including the '''''[http://scgensoc.org/special-collections-tina-brayton-collection/ Tina Brayton Collection]''''' which is equivalent to the ''[[Draper Manuscript Collection]]&nbsp;'' but larger and with a better index, and many compiled genealogies of Virginia, Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee, and '''West Virginia''' families.<ref name="DB113">Dollarhide and Bremer, 113.</ref> <ref>[http://scgensoc.org/special-collections-tina-brayton-collection/ The Tina Brayton Collection] in ''Genealogical Society of Santa Cruz County'' (accessed 3 January 2014).</ref><br><br>

=== [[University of Chicago Library]]  ===

:This library has plentiful historical records. Noteworthy is the '''''Durrett Collection&nbsp;''''' of historical Kentucky, '''West Virginia''', and Ohio River Valley manuscripts. The size and content of this collection is comparable to the ''[[Draper Manuscript Collection]]''. It includes the earliest people in the Ohio Valley.<ref name="DB39">Dollarhide and Bremer, 39.</ref><br><br>

=== [[Virginia Historical Society]]  ===

:They have more records for early West Virginia than in any West Virginia repository.<ref name="DB117" /> County records such as marriages, county court records, wills, censuses, land, militia lists, bounty lands, passenger lists, tax lists, poll lists, genealogies, newspapers, family Bibles, and African American genealogy. They have a card index to 10 million documents of the Old Dominion, that is Virginia, '''West Virginia''', and Kentucky.<ref name="DB97">Dollarhide and Bremer, 97.</ref> <ref>[http://www.vahistorical.org/collections-and-resources/how-we-can-help-your-research/looking-people Looking for People] in ''Virginia Historical Society'' (accessed 7 January 2014).</ref><br><br>

== Guidebook  ==

== References  ==

{{reflist}} {{West Virginia|West Virginia}}{{U.S. Archives and Libraries}}  

[[Category:West_Virginia Archives and Libraries]]