Virginia Newspapers

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Online Resources[edit | edit source]

History[edit | edit source]

Virginia's earliest newspaper, the Virginia Gazette, was first published in Williamsburg in 1736. Other towns began publishing local newspapers in the 1780s and 1790s.[1]

Resources for Virginia Newspapers[edit | edit source]

Published Transcriptions and Abstracts[edit | edit source]

  • Crouse, Randy F. McNew. the freshest Advices, Buckingham County, Virginia Genealogical Records from Newspapers, 1736-1850. 2019. Transcribed newspaper articles relating to Buckingham County and central Virginia including Richmond, Charlottesville, Farmville, Lynchburg, Appomattox and vicinity. Index includes counties, cities, towns, over 10,000 personal names (including slaves), occupations, taverns, plantations, geographical features. There are slave sale ads, land sale ads, ads for lost horses and runaway slaves, marriage and death notices, obituaries, chancery cases (some naming entire and extended families over multiple generations,) committee appointments, removal notices and more. At various libraries (WorldCat).
  • Headley, Robert K. "Genealogical Abstracts from 18th-Century Virginia Newspapers." Baltimore, Md.: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1999. FS Library Book 975.5 D2hr. Online at: Internet Archive.
  • Hiatt, Marty. "Marriage and Death Notices from the Genius of Liberty, 1817–1843." Northern Virginia Genealogy, 2005. Published in 2005 as a special issue of Northern Virginia Genealogy.
  • Henley, Bernard J., Virginia Genealogical Society, Marriages and Deaths from Richmond, Virginia Newspapers, 1780-1820, Southern Historical Press, 1983. 285 pages. “Since Richmond was the state capital and a center of commerce for a wide area, the marriage and death notices abstracted here frequently refer to persons in other states, and other areas of Virginia. Some of the notices included were news items rather than obituaries or social notes. Many were obviously copied from out-of-town papers of unknown dates and a number of these were apparently included for their humor content or strangeness.”
  • Henley, Bernard J., Virginia Genealogical Society, Marriage Notices from Richmond, Virginia, Newspapers, 1821-1840. Virginia Genealogical Society, 1997. 238 pages.
  • Henley, Bernard J., Virginia Genealogical Society, Marriage Notices from Richmond, Virginia, Newspapers, 1841-1853. Virginia Genealogical Society, 1997. 238 pages.

Libraries and Archives[edit | edit source]

The Library of Virginia, Virginia Historical Society, and University of Virginia have large collections of newspapers for the state.

Library of Virginia

Newspaper Collection

University of Virginia Library

Newspaper Collection

Jones Memorial library

Newspaper Collection

Newspaper Directory[edit | edit source]

The U.S. Newspaper Directory, 1690-Present is a national directory from the Library of Congress of over 140,000 newspaper titles. The directory provides a list of libraries from around the country that have the newspapers in their collections.

Digital Issues Online[edit | edit source]

 Wikipedia has more about this subject: List of online newspaper archives

NewspaperArchive ($) has a collection of digitized Virginia newspapers online. This database is sometimes free at libraries. It may be under the name Access NewspaperArchive.

Indexed images of the Virginia Gazette (1736-1780) are available online through the Colonial Williamsburg website.

Issues of the Virginia Gazette for the years 1774-1775, 1791-1803, 1807-1809 are available online at Google News - free.

Issues of the Virginia Gazette and General Advertiser for the years 1803-1805 are available online at Google News - free.

Issues of the Virginia Herald for the years 1792-1795, 1807-1809 are available online at Google News - free.

Issues of the Virginia Argus for the years 1799-1802, 1804-1805, 1810-1811, 1816 are available online at Google News - free.

OnlineNewspapers.com

Chronicling America has some historical issues for the state of Virginia online.

Indexes[edit | edit source]

The Virginia Historical Society's Marriage and Obituary Index, 1736-1820 (newspaper abstracts) is available at FamilySearch. Images of the original index cards are browseable, arranged alphabetically by surname.


Professor Tom Costa and The Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia have created a database of all runaway advertisements for slaves, indentured servants, transported convicts, and ship deserters listed in this source and other Virginia newspapers (1736-1803), see: The Geography of Slavery in Virginia. These newspapers are valuable resources for all regions of Virginia.

The FamilySearch Library[edit | edit source]

The FamilySearch Library has acquired very few copies of newspapers from Virginia. A bibliography of Virginia newspapers is:

Cappon, Lester J. Virginia Newspapers 1821-1935: A Bibliography with Historical Introduction and Notes. New York, NY: D. Appleton Century, 1936. (FamilySearch Library book 975.5 B33c; fiche 6104102.)

Earlier newspapers are discussed in:

  • Brigham, Clarence Saunders. History and Bibliography of American Newspapers, 1690-1820. Two Volumes. Worcester, Massachusetts: American Antiquarian Society, 1947, 1975. (FS Library book 973 A3bc.)

Wikipedia contributors have compiled a useful List of newspapers in Virginia in the 18th century.

The FamilySearch Library has copies of some published indexes of newspapers, such as:

  • Cappon, Lester J. and Stella F. Duff. Virginia Gazette, Index 1736-1780. Williamsburg, Virginia: Institute of Early American History and Culture, 1950. (FamilySearch Library book 975.54252 B32c; film 1036212 items 2-3; fiche 6051225. The newspapers for these years are on FS Library films 029718-23.) This duplicates what is now available on the Colonial Williamsburg site.
  • Hall, Virginius Cornick. Abstracts of Marriage and Obituary Notices in Virginia Newspapers Before 1820. Salt Lake City, Utah: Genealogical Society of Utah, 1987. (On four FS Library films 1508537 and 1508567-69.)

The Library of Virginia has indexes to obituaries and marriage notices printed in the Richmond Whig and the Richmond Enquirer from 1804 to 1857. Some of this information has also been published in:

McIlwaine, H.R. Index to Obituary Notices in the Richmond Enquirer from May 9, 1804 through 1828, and the Richmond Whig from January 1824 to 1838. 1921. Reprint, Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing, 1974. (FamilySearch Library book 975.5 A1 no. 52; film 908702 item 6.)

The FamilySearch Library has begun to digitize its Virginia newspaper collection, see Virginia, Winchester, Evening Star Obituaries - FamilySearch Historical Records for an example.

London newspapers at times had things to say about family happenings in Virginia, see:

  • 1731-1868 - Dobson, David. American Vital Records From the Gentleman's Magazine. Baltimore, Md.: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1987. FS Library Book 973 V22d; digital version at Ancestry ($).

References[edit | edit source]

  1. ↑ John Frederick Dorman, "Review of Genealogical Abstracts from 18th-Century Virginia Newspapers," in The Virginia Genealogist, Vol. 43, No. 3 (Jul.-Sep. 1999):235.
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Links to Virginia-related articles (see also West Virginia-related articles)
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Major
Repositories
Bristol Public Library · Germanna Foundation Library · Handley Regional Library · Historical Society of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA) · Historical Society of Washington, D.C. · John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library at Colonial Williamsburg · Jones Memorial Library · Library of Congress (Washington, DC) · Library of Virginia · Mary Ball Washington Museum and Library · Maryland State Archives (Annapolis, MD) · National Archives I (Washington, DC) · National Archives II (College Park, MD) · National Archives at Philadelphia (PA) · National Genealogical Society · New York Public Library (New York City, NY) · Pennsylvania State Archives (Harrisburg, PA) · Portsmouth Public Library · Roanoke County Public Library · Salisbury University Edward H. Nabb Research Center for Delmarva History and Culture (Salisbury, MD) · Santa Cruz Public Library Downtown (Santa Cruz, CA) · University of Virginia Library · Virginia Department of Health · Virginia Historical Society · Virginia Theological Seminary · Washington National Records Center (Suitland, MD) · William and Mary College Swem Library
Migration
Routes
Routes: Chesapeake Bay • James River • Potomac River • Rappahannock River • York River • Chesapeake and Ohio Canal • Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad • Fall Line Road (or Southern Road) • Great Indian Warpath • Great Trading Path • Great Valley Road • Kanawha Trail • King's Highway • National Road (Cumberland Road) • New River and Southern Trail • Occaneechi Path • Old Cherokee Path • Old Northwestern Turnpike • Pamunkey-New River Trail • Pioneer Road • Richmond Road • Richmond-Williamsburg Road • Saura-Saponi Trail • Secondary Coast Road • Upper Road • Wilderness Road • Wilmington, Highpoint, and Northern Trail • Ports: Atlantic Coast Ports • Accomack • Alexandria • Belvoir Plantation • Bermuda Hundred • Dumfries • Falmouth • Fredericksburg • Hampton • Jamestown • Leedstown • Norfolk • Port Royal • Portsmouth • South Quay • Suffolk • Tappahannock (aka Hobb's Hole) • Urbanna • Williamsburg • Yorktown
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