West Virginia Genealogy Resource

If you have ancestors from West Virginia, you should take some time to visit the West Virginia Pioneers website. While the majority of the site's data is for Jackson County, this free genealogy resource still has a lot to offer for those researching other West Virginia counties.

One of the resources you can expect to find on the site is links to books on Virginia and West Virginia. These links take you to other websites where you can read some or all of the book for free online.

Tracing ancestors through the time where counties were constantly having their borders changed to allow the emergence of additional counties is difficult. With West Virginia, you have the added confusion of it being part of Virginia until it gained statehood in 1863. Be sure to check out map page which offers maps which span the years from 1617 to 1895. This can be helpful in locating ancestors who disappeared between censuses.

Other free genealogy resources offered by the site include transcriptions of the 1840 and 1850 Jackson County censuses, links to find deeds and wills from a few counties and cemetery data. You may also want to check the surname page to see if you recognize any names. Clicking on the surname will take you to another page which gives you a list of names that the site has information on. Clicking on a specific name will take you to another page with more detailed information.

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Another West Virginia Genealogy Resource

While looking into my West Virginia roots, I came across the Hackers Creek Pioneer Descendants website. While not everything on the website is free, there are still enough free genealogy resources for it to be worth taking a look.

The site focuses mostly on the counties of central West Virginia-Barbour, Braxton, Doddridge, Gilmer, Harrison, Lewis, Monongalia, Upshur and Webster-but also offers some genealogy data for other counties as well. The group also has a genealogy library located in Lewis County. If you find a reference to your ancestor in their online card catalog, you can email or snail mail a request for a lookup. It appears that a simple lookup will be answered for free, but more extensive research requires a fee. If you happen to be in the area, you can also visit the library.

Another free genealogy resource offered by the website is the Norman files. It traces the genealogy of many West Virginia families starting with the oldest known ancestor and working forward towards the present. Some are more extensive than others. As with any shared genealogical data, you should use this as a guide, rather than a source.

The site also offers some cemetery transcriptions, muster rolls, photographs, transcriptions of land books, court minutes transcriptions, military information, history of Hackers Creek and more.

Several HCPD members have personal websites offering genealogy information on their families. You can find the list by clicking on the HCPD Data tab on the left side of the page. As I've noted before, it should be used as a guide only.

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West Virginia Resource

If you have ancestors in West Virginia, there is a great genealogy resource you should know about. The West Virginia Archives and History has placed a large number of vital records (birth, marriage and death) online as part of their Vital Research Records Project. The dates you can search vary by county, but most counties have records going back to the 1800s. Birth records go to within 100 years of today's date, with subsequent years being added as they pass the 100 year mark. Death records go to within 50 years of today. As with birth records, subsequent records are added yearly as they reach that mark.

Some of the records are transcribed. On others, it will be necessary to view the image itself to get your information. If you are looking for siblings of an ancestor, it pays to scroll through the entire page your ancestor is listed on. In many cases, I was able to find siblings a couple lines down.

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