Virginia Colonial Records

Virginia Wiki Topics

Beginning Research

Guided Research Research Strategies Record Finder

Record Types

Adoption Bible Records Cemeteries Census Church Records Colonial Records Correctional Institutions Court Records Crime and Punishment Directories Divorce Records Emigration & Immigration Funeral Records Genealogies Land & Property Military Records Naturalization & Citizenship Newspapers Obituaries Occupation & Business Records Online Collections Periodicals Probate Records Public Records Schools and Education Records Substitute Records Taxation Vital Records Voter Records

Virginia Background

Biography Church History Further Reading Gazetteers Heraldry History Law & Legislation Maps Migration

Cultural Groups

African Americans Indigenous Peoples Cultural Groups Swedish American

Local Research Resources

Archives & Libraries Societies Find a FamilySearch center

United States

U.S. Colonial Records

Virginia

Colonial Records

History

The first permanant European settlement in Virginia was made in Jamestown in 1607. These settlers were called the Virginia Company of London, and in 1609 recieved a charter. In 1624, the Virginia Company was dissolved when it became a royal colony. French Huguenot and German settlers arrived in Virginia by the mid-18th century.

Earliest Church Records	Earliest Land Records	Earliest Court Records	Earliest Newspapers
1646	1619	1608	1736

Online Records

Virginia Colonial Records, 1607-1853 at Ancestry.

Resources

Statewide Records

Court Records

• Minutes of the Council and General Court of Colonial Virginia: 1620-1632, 1670-1676 by H.R. McIlwaine, (1924. Reprint. Richmond: VSL, 1979).
• Executive Journals of the Council of Colonial Virginia (1680-1775) by Virginia Council, 6 Vols., (1925. Reprint. Richmond: VSL, 1966-1978).
• Virginia Colonial Decisions: The Reports by Sir John Randolph and Edward Barradall of the Decisions of the General Court of Virginia, 1728-1741'' by R.T. Barton, 2 Vols., (Boston: n.p., 1909).
• The Journals of the House of Burgesses of Virginia, 1619-1776 by John Pendleton Kennedy and Henry Reed McIlwaine, 13 Vols., (1905-1915. Reprint. Richmond: VSL and Scholarly Resources, 1985).
• Calendar of Virginia State Papers and Other Manuscripts (1652-1879) by William P. Palmer, 11 Vols., (Richmond: n.p., 1875-1893).
• The Old Dominion in the Seventeenth Century: A Documentary History of Virginia, 1606-1689 by Warren M. Billings, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1975). Can be borrowed digitally on Archive.org.
• Statutes at Large, Being a Collection of All the Laws of Virginia from the First Session of the Legislature in the Year 1619 by William Waller Hening, 13 Vols., (1819-1823. Reprint. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1969).
• The Laws of Virginia: Being a Supplement to Hening's Statutes at Large, 1700-1750 by Waverly K. Winfree, (Richmond: VSL, 1971).
• Personal Names in Hening's Statutes at Large of Virginia, and Shepherd's Continuation by Joseph J. Casey, (1896. Reprint. Baltimore: Clearfield Co., 1977). Available digitally on Archive.org
• Virginia Company of London, 1607-1624 by Beverley Fleet in Virginia Colonial Abstracts. Series 2. Vol. 3, (Washington, DC: L.O. Duvall, 1955).
• An Introduction to the Records of the Virginia Company of London, with a Bibliographical List of the Extant Documents by Susan Myra Kingsbury, (1905. Reprint. Fort Wayne, IN: Allen County Public Library, 1990).
• The Records of the Virginia Company of London by Susan Myra Kingsbury, 3 Vols., (Washington, DC: GPO, 1906-1935).
• Colonial Records of Virginia, (1874. Reprint. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1964). Available digitally at Archive.org

Land Records

• Virginia Northern Neck Land Grants by G.E. Gray, 4 Vols., (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1987-1993).
• Cavaliers and Pioneers: Abstracts of Virginia Land Patents and Grants (1623-1749) by Nell Marion Nugent, 5 Vols., (Richmond: Dietz Printing Co., VSL, Virginia Genealogical Society, 1934, 1963, 1977-1979, 1994).
• Mother Earth: Land Grants in Virginia, 1607-1699 by W. Stitt Robinson, (Williamsburg, VA: 350th Anniversary Celebration Corporation, 1957).

Military Records

• Virginia Colonial Militia, 1651-1776 by William Armstrong Crozier, (1905. Reprint. Baltimore: Southern Book Co., 1954). Available digitally at Archive.org
• List of Colonial Soldiers of Virginia: Special Report of the Department of Archives and history for 1913 by H.J. Eckenrode, (1917. Reprint. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing CO., 1974).
• Virginia's Colonial Soldiers by Lloyd DeWitt Bockstruck, (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1988).

Church Records

• A Guide to Episcopal Church Records in Virginia by Edith F. Axelson, (Athens, GA: Iberian Publishing Co., 1988).
• Colonial Churches in Virginia by Henry Irving Brock, (Richmond: The Dale Press, 1930).
• Virginia's Mother Church and the Political Conditions Under Which it Grew by George MacLaren Brydon, 2 Vols., (Richmond: Virginia Historical Society, 1947-1952). Also available digitally on Archive.org
• History of the Lutheran Church in Virginia and East Tennessee by C.W. Cassell, (Strasburg, VA: Shenandoah Publishing house, 1930).
• A Guide to Church Records in the Archives Branch, Virginia State Library by Jewell T. Clark, (Richmond: VSL, 1981).
• Colonial Churches: A Series of Sketches of Churches in the Original Colony of Virginia: with Pictures of Each Church, (1907. Reprint. Fort Wayne, IN: Allen County Public Library, 1990).
• The Colonial Church in Virginia: With Biographical Sketches of the First Six Bishops of the Diocese of Virginia, and Other Historical Papers, Together with Brief Biographical Sketches of the Colonial Clergy of Virginia by Edward Lewis Goodwin, (Milwaukee: Morehouse Publishing Co., 1927).
• A Guide to Bible Records in the Archives Branch, Virginia State Library by Lyndon H. Hart, (Richmond: VSL, 1985).
• Colonial Churches of Tidewater, Virginia by George Carrington Mason, (Richmond: Whittet and Shepperson, 1945).
• Old Churches, Ministers and Families of Virginia, Reprinted with Digested Index and Genealogical Guide Compiled by Jennings Cropper Wise by William Meade, 2 Vols., (1857, 1910. Reprint. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1966).
• The Friendly Virginians: America's First Quakers by Jay Worrall, Jr., (Athens, GA: Iberian Publishing Co., 1994).

Manuscript Collections

• The William Blathwayt Papers at Colonial Williamsburg, 1661-1772, (Frederick, MD: University Publications of America, 1989, film 1843294). The original papers in this collections are located at the PRO in Kew, Surrey, England.