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Virginia Discontinued Counties

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Virginia History & Facts

   Virginia (state), in full Commonwealth of Virginia, state in the eastern United States and one of the original 13 colonies. Named for the Virgin Queen, Elizabeth I of England, Virginia was England’s first successful overseas colony and the site of the first permanent English settlement in America. At one time it held territory from which several other states were later formed. West Virginia was part of Virginia until 1863. Virginia’s rich political heritage helped shape the democratic principles on which the United States was founded. Virginia played an important role in the American Revolution (1775-1783), and it entered the Union as the tenth of the original 13 states on June 25, 1788. During the American Civil War (1861-1865) the state’s capital, Richmond, was also capital of the Confederacy. The state has long been nicknamed Old Dominion. The Official State website is at http://www.virginia.gov/

   Although evidence suggests that some form of county government existed in Virginia by 1622, the Commonwealth's present structure of local government was begun in 1634, with the formation of eight shires or counties. These jurisdictions became the units of representation in the colonial legislature. The eight original shires were: Accawmack, Charles City, Charles River, Elizabeth City, Henrico, James City, Warrosquyoake, and Warwick River.

   Most pre-Civil War county records are now housed at The Library of Virginia, with copies maintained in the county and independent city courthouses. Many early records have been microfilmed, with copies available at The Library of Virginia and the FHL.
  Research in the Virginia county collection can be done at a local library as well. The Library of Virginia participates in the American Library Association Interlibrary Loan program and will loan up to five reels of their extensive collection for a period of four weeks. Each reel of microfilm must be ordered by its number.

  Virginia is the only state with independent cities; they are independent of the county or counties in which they are geographically located. Towns, however, remain a part of their counties. As of 1987, there were forty-one independent cities in Virginia; since population determines city status, more than half were incorporated after 1904. Many Virginia counties have been absorbed by independent cities. See Virginia's Independent Cities Page for more details.

As you conduct your research in the records of a specific area, remember that when a new locality county was formed or incorporated, the records for the area encompassed within the new locality were not moved but stayed in the parent locality; likewise, many county and city records remain within the locality today and are not housed at the Library of Virginia.

Virginia's Counties
As the population of Virginia grew during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the General Assembly created new counties on the western fringes of the most heavily settled areas, and during the nineteenth century the General Assembly divided some counties into two or three smaller counties for the convenience of the people who lived there. These frequent changes in county boundary lines need to be kept in mind when doing research using public records. It is often stated that a particular Virginia county included all of Virginia to the west of it, and while that is legally true, there were often so few residents far to the west that few or no county records will contain documentary evidence for the region beyond the frontier. Knowledge of settlement patterns and of westward migration is necessary to guide researchers to the record groups that are most likely to contain the information that they need.

Virginia's Independent Cities
Virginia has a unique system of local government in that independent cities are politically and administratively separate from the county or counties in which they are geographically situated. Independent cities operate their own court system. Virginia's towns exercise only limited functions of self-government and are subordinate in most respects to the counties in which they are located. There are currently 39 independent cities in the Commonwealth. See Virginia's Independent Cities Page for more details.

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Virginia Destroyed Courthouses

  Several Virginia counties, most of them in the eastern part of the state, have suffered tremendous loss of their early records during the intense military activity that occurred during the Civil War, and others lost records in fires. At some point, almost everyone conducting genealogical or historical research will face the problem of finding information from a so-called "Burned Record county."

  If you are working with a county that has suffered a loss of court records, you must devote all your genealogical energy and historical knowledge to the project. First, survey any extant records as well as all existing indexes; second, read every surviving record page by page; third, consult the records of the surrounding counties; finally, seek out other types of records, such as church, business, private, and government documents. Previously lost records are still turning up; some are returned by descendants of Union soldiers who took souvenirs. As new information surfaces from the counties and independent cities, and “new” records are discovered, the beginning dates of record categories may change.

  Within the colonial period, the major source available are the patents that were recorded in the Secretary's Office between 1623 and 1774. Determine also if any church records are extant for the county of your interest. A few more resources are available during the statehood period.

  Title to virgin land issued from the governor in a record now called a grant; petitions to the legislature date from 1775 into the 1850s; tax records, both land and personal, date from 1782 into the twentieth century; militia fines date from 1795 to 1860. 

  Researchers should also consult the federal census schedules that were taken every ten years and for Virginia survive from 1810 onward, excepting 1890, which was almost entirely burned. Realize, however, that most of these records are simply lists and do not give family information. The record can locate a particular name within a specific county.

  Burned record counties might be grouped into three basic categories: Hopeless, Almost Hopeless, and Difficult.

Included in the Hopeless category are:

• Appomattox: created in 1845, county court records were destroyed by fire in 1892.
• Buchanan: created in 1858, county court records were destroyed by fire in 1885; records created after that date suffered extreme damage in a flood in 1977. A few re-recorded deeds exist.
• Buckingham: created in 1761, county court records were destroyed by fire in 1869. One plat book survived and some wills and deeds were later recorded.
• Dinwiddie: created in 1752, county court records prior to 1833 were destroyed in 1865. One plat book, one order book, and one judgment book survive.
• Henrico: created in 1634 as an original shire, all county court records prior to 1655 and almost all prior to 1677 are missing; additionally, many isolated records were destroyed during the Revolutionary War, and almost all Circuit Court records were destroyed by fire in Richmond on 3 April 1865.
• James City: created in 1634 as an original shire, all county court records were lost in 1865.
• King and Queen: created in 1691, county court records were lost in fires in 1828 and 1865. One plat book and three mid-nineteenth century Superior Court record books survive.
• Nansemond: created in 1652, county court records were destroyed in three separate fires, the earliest of which consumed the house of the court clerk in April 1734 (where the records were kept at that time), and the last on 7 February 1866. A few fee books have been found in the records of Sussex County.
• New Kent: created in 1654, county court records were destroyed when John Posey burned the courthouse on 15 July 1787, and records created after that date were lost to fire in 1865.
• Warwick: created in 1643, county court records were destroyed at several times with most destruction occurring during the Civil War. A seventeenth century livestock registry, one order book, and one minute book from the eighteenth century survive.

Included in the Almost Hopeless category are:

• Prince George: created in 1703, most county court records were burned during the Civil War. A few record books survived and, proving that there is always hope, the volume in which deeds and wills were recorded between 1710 and 1713 was found within the last decade. 
• Elizabeth City: created in 1634 as an original shire, records were damaged and/or destroyed during the Revolutionary War, War of 1812, and the Civil War. A few early deeds, wills, orders, and guardian's accounts survive.
• Gloucester: created in 1651, all county court records were destroyed by an 1820 fire, and most of the records created after that date were destroyed in Richmond on 3 April 1865. Six minute books from the nineteenth century and two surveyor's record books survive.
• Hanover: created in 1721, most county court records were destroyed by fire in Richmond on 3 April 1865. A few isolated record books that were not sent to Richmond and various scraps of loose papers survive.

Included in the Difficult category are Twenty-five other Virginia counties have suffered some loss of county court records, some to a greater degree than others :

• Albemarle: created in 1744, all order books except the first and all loose papers were destroyed in Tarleton's raid on Charlottesville in 1781.
• Bland: created in 1861, all but a few record books and some chancery papers were destroyed by fire in 1888.
• Brunswick: created in 1732, the first pages of a number of early record books damaged by time.
• Caroline: created in 1728, most records prior to 1836 were destroyed during the Civil War. Some deeds and wills are recorded in extant Chancery Papers, and a considerable number of order books and loose papers survive.
• Charles City: created in 1634 as an original shire, records have been destroyed at various times. The most damage occurred during the Civil War when the records were strewn through woods in a rainstorm. Many fragments of records exist, so many, in fact, that there is something for almost every year.
• Chesterfield: created in 1749, lost one marriage register and some loose court papers during the Civil War.
• Clarke: created in 1836, had pages cut from several record books during the Civil War.
• Craig: created in 1851, lost the first deed book and most of the loose papers during the Civil War.
• Fairfax: created in 1742, original wills and deeds as well as many other loose papers were destroyed during the Civil War; deed books for twenty-six of the fifty-six years between 1763 and 1819 are missing.
• Greene: created in 1838, lost the first deed book during the Civil War when it was removed from the courthouse; no records were lost, but some suffered extreme water damage in efforts to put out a fire in the 1970s.
• King George: created in 1721, had one will book, an early marriage register, and an order book "carried away during the Civil War." A few years ago the will book was deposited in the Virginia Historical Society.
• King William: created in 1702, all county court records prior to 1885 (except for seventeen will books) were destroyed in a fire in that year.
• Lee: created in 1793, lost the oldest marriage register in an 1863 fire.
• Louisa: created in 1742, lost one order book in Richmond in 1865.
• Mathews: created in 1791, all county court records were burned in Richmond on 3 April 1865. At least two bond books, one plat book, and a number of fee books survive.
• Northumberland: created in 1645, suffered some loss in a fire in the clerk's office on 25 October 1710.
• Nottoway: created in 1789, many county court records were destroyed or heavily mutilated in 1865.
• Prince William: created in 1731, many county court records have been lost, destroyed, or stolen at various times. Scattered years of deeds, wills, and orders, as well as various bond books and a plat book, survive.
• Richmond: created in 1692, has some record books damaged and mutilated due to unknown causes; additionally, the will books prior to 1699 were missing as early as 1793, and order books for the period 1794-1816 are also missing.
• Rockingham: created in 1778, many pre-Civil War records were lost during the Valley Campaign of 1864. In an effort to safeguard the records, they were loaded onto a wagon that was subsequently set afire by Union troops. Records that were saved include: administrators, executors, and guardians bonds.
• Russell: created in 1786, the first marriage register and all loose files were lost in a fire in the clerk's office in 1872.
• Stafford: created in 1664, many pre-Civil War county court records were lost to vandalism during the war. Scattered years of deeds, wills, and orders have survived as has an old General Index.
• Surry: created in 1652, has lost deeds for 1835-1838 and order books for 1718-1741 and various other early record books are fragmentary. Court house fires in 1906 and 1922 did not result in loss of records which were then housed in a separate clerk's office.
• Washington: created in 1777, lost a minute book for the period 1787-1819 and many loose papers in a fire in the clerk's office on 15 December 1864.
• Westmoreland: created in 1653, lost an order book for the period 1764-1776 to theft, and many loose papers were damaged during both the Revolutionary War and the Civil War.

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