ABOUT
The Stewart Bell Jr. Archives, located at the Handley Library in Winchester, Virginia, is a local history and genealogy center focused on the history of the City of Winchester and Frederick County, Virginia, and to a lesser extent, surrounding counties. Its collections include a variety of genealogical sources such as deeds and other property and land records; birth, death, and marriage records; published genealogies; immigration, census, and court records; and other sources such a maps, manuscript collections, newspapers, and photographs. The collections include materials from the 1730s to the present. Researchers in the Reading Room may also access Ancestry, Fold 3 and Heritage Quest databases.
The Reading Room has two public computers for searching the catalog and other sources such as databases, indexes, and pathfinders. Two microfilm readers and a copier/scanner are available for researchers to use. Fees apply for paper copies. Researchers are encouraged to bring a flash drive if they wish to save copies of materials.
CONTACT INFORMATION
Address: 100 W. Piccadilly St., Winchester, VA 22601
Email: <a href="mailto:archives@handleyregional.org">archives@handleyregional.org</a>
Website:<a href="https://www.handleyregional.org/archives">www.handleyregional.org/archives</a>
Telephone: 540 662-9041, ext. 17
READING ROOM HOURS OF OPERATION
Please note, the Reading Room will close for lunch daily from 12:30 PM to 1:15 PM.
Monday: 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM
Tuesday: 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM
Wednesday: 10:00 AM to 8:00 PM
Thursday: 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM
Friday: 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM
Saturday: 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM
SPECIAL NOTICE
The Stewart Bell Jr. Archives will be closed for renovation of its storage area and installation of moveable shelving beginning Monday October 31st until Saturday, December 3rd, 2022. During this period, the Reading Room will be closed to researchers and staff will be unable to undertake any research or reproduction requests. Normal operations are expected to resume Monday, December 5th.
USEFUL LINKS
Plan Your Visit:https://www.handleyregional.org/archives/visit-the-archives
Manuscript Collections: https://www.handleyregional.org/services/departments/archives/manuscripts
Photographshttps://handley.pastperfectonline.com/
Historic Newspapers Onlinehttp://handleyregionallibrary.advantage-preservation.com/
City of Winchester Maps and Parking
- Google map and directions
- All city buses stop within three blocks of the library. The Northside/Salvation Army and the Northside/Westminster Canterbury southbound buses stop next to the library.[1]
Use computers for free. Users must have a current Handley Regional Library card to use the Internet.[2]
- Pathfinders biblographies for Civil War Manuscript Collection; Civil War Manuscripts - Diaries and Letters; Death Records Sources; Fairfax Land Grants.
- Manuscript inventories brief scope, content, and historical background for hundreds of collections.
If you cannot visit or find a source at the Handley Regional Library, a similar source may be available at one of the following.
Overlapping Collections
- National Archives at Philadelphia, PA, records of federal agencies and courts for Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia, censuses, ships lists, naturalizations, military records.[3]
- Library of Virginia, Richmond, large genealogy collection including births and deaths 1853-1896, marriages before 1936, histories, biographies, newspapers, Bibles, and huge manuscript collection (about half online), military and Civil War records, deeds, wills and other court records.[4] [5]
- Virginia Historical Society, Richmond, county records, militia lists, bounty lands, tax lists, poll lists, genealogies, newspapers, Bibles, and a huge index to Virginia, West Virginia and Kentucky settlers.[4]
Similar Collections
- Bristol Public Library a relatively small family folder collection, but an important resource for settlers coming from Pennsylvania, Maryland, and northern Virginia along the Great Valley Road into Tennessee, Kentucky, and North Carolina.[6]
- Roanoke County Public Library, very good for southwest Virginia, including family folders, books, genealogies, and indexes.[4]
- Santa Cruz Public Library Downtown, Santa Cruz, Calif., the SCGS's Tina Brayton Collection is equivalent to the Draper Manuscript Collection but larger and with a better index, and many compiled genealogies of Virginia, Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee, and West Virginia families.[4] [7]
Neighboring Collections
- Office of Vital Records, Richmond, marriage, divorce and death after 50 years, birth after 100 years.[5]
- Shenandoah Valley Genealogical Society, Winchester, promotes sound genealogical practices, especially for Augusta, Berkeley (now WV), Clarke, Jefferson (now WV), Frederick, Rockingham, Shenandoah, Page, and Warren counties.[8]
- Winchester-Frederick County Historical Society operates the archives at Hendley Regional Library.[9]
- Valley Brethren-Mennonite Heritage Center history of the Brethren and Mennonites in settling the Shenandoah Valley, during the Civil War, and early 1900s.[10]
- City of Winchester, County of Frederick Circuit Court marriages and probate records.[11]
- Repositories in surrounding counties: Virginia: Clarke, Shenandoah, Warren; West Virginia: Berkeley, Hampshire, Hardy, Jefferson, and Morgan.
- Library of Congress, Washington, DC, Local History and Genealogy Reading Room is part of the world's largest library including 50,000 genealogies, 100,000 local histories, manuscripts, microfilms, maps, newspapers, photographs, books, strong in North American, British Isles, and German sources.[12]
- National Archives I, Washington DC, census, pre-WWI military service & pensions, passenger lists, naturalizations, passports, federal bounty land, homesteads, bankruptcy, ethnic sources, prisons, and federal employees.[13]
- New York Public Library international genealogy, heraldry, personal and family names (in Roman alphabets), family papers, Dorot Jewish collection, maps, periodicals, American history at national, state, and local levels.[14]
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