• VA Home
• VA Genealogical Records
  • Census Records
  • Church Records
  • Court Records
  • Land Records
  • Military Records
  • Vital Records
• VA Cities
• VA Maps
• VA Archives & Societies
• VA Newspapers
• VA Periodicals
• Search VA Databases
• Blog

Virginia Genealogical Periodicals and Publications

One of the most formidable challenges facing genealogists is finding all the information for a particular ancestor and a specific geographic area of interest—the challenge of comprehensive searching. So much of the success one enjoys—or the frustration one endures—is directly tied to finding and using the widest range of sources. The many different kinds of magazines and periodicals published by individuals and organizations in the field are often overlooked sources of genealogical clues.

With the many thousands of periodicals currently being published or having been published, the task of finding specific geographic and surname data may at first appear daunting. But there are numerous ways of both finding the right periodical and locating the meaningful articles for research. These ways come in the form of directories and lists as well as a wide variety to indexes providing access to the world of genealogical periodical literature.

Virginia has excellent genealogical and historical periodicals beginning with a trio of early publications: The William and Mary Quarterly, 1892–present in three series (Institute of Early American History and Culture); Tyler's Quarterly Historical and Genealogical Magazine, 1919–52; and The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, 1893–present (Virginia Historical Society). They are filled with valuable genealogical or historical information about early Virginians. Issues through 1930 (Tyler's Quarterly through 1929) are indexed in Swem's Virginia Historical Index (cited in Background Sources). Reprints of family history articles in these periodicals appear in an encyclopedic work entitled Genealogies of Virginia Families (Baltimore, Md.: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1980–82), divided into three series. The first, in five volumes, consists of articles reprinted from The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography (1980). The second series of four volumes is composed of articles excerpted from Tyler's Quarterly. The last series, derived from the William and Mary Quarterly, completes the work in five volumes.

• The William and Mary Quarterly, 1892–present in three series
• Tyler's Quarterly Historical and Genealogical Magazine, 1919–52;
• The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, 1893–present (Virginia Historical Society)
• The Virginia Genealogist, 1957–present (independently published, John Frederick Dorman, editor, P.O. Box 5860, Falmouth, Virginia 22403-5860), a quarterly with source material, genealogies of early Virginia and West Virginia families, and a query section (a cumulative index for volumes 1–20 was produced in 1981)
• The Magazine of Virginia Genealogy (formerly: Virginia Genealogical Society Quarterly Bulletin), 1963–present, the quarterly of the Virginia Genealogical Society.

Collection Guides at the Library of Virginia:

• Search The PERiodical Source Index
• Current Journals and Magazines - title list of current periodicals.
• Index to Confederate Veteran Magazine - A fully-searchable index to the personal names of Confederate soldiers as they appear in the Confederate Veteran magazine published between 1893 and 1932.