Frederick County was named for Frederick Louis, Prince of Wales and eldest son of George II. It was formed from Orange County in 1738, but the county government was not organized until 1743. Part of Augusta County was added later. Its area is 426 square miles, and the county seat is Winchester. According to the 2000 census, the population is 59,209. See Extended History for More information.
PLEASE READ!! Please call the clerk's department to confirm hours, mailing address, fees and other specifics before visiting or requesting information because of sometimes changing contact information.
Frederick County Clerk of the Circuit Courthas Marriage Records from 1771 , Land Records from 1743 , Probate Records from 1743 and Court Records from 1743 and is located at the County Courthouse on 5 North Kent Street,
Winchester, Virginia 22601; (540) 667-5770 . The Clerk of the Circuit Court is a constitutional official that is elected by the voters of Frederick County.
The Clerk is charged with responsibilities that include judicial and non-judicial duties. The Clerk provides administrative support for Circuit Court by preparing, recording, and maintaining court orders, subpoenas, and pleadings.
The Clerk's Office also manages juries, disposal of evidence, collection of criminal fines and costs.
Inquiries concerning the Court's procedures and policies and the records should be directed to the Clerk's Office, which serves as a repository for
the Court's records. Non-judicial duties include the authority to probate wills, grant administration of estates, appoint guardians, issue marriage licenses.
The Clerk acts as the Register of Deeds by recording all deeds, deeds of trust, real estate liens, releases and powers of attorney. The Clerk acts as the county archivist by maintaining records of the Court, real estate, probate and numerous other county records.
Records management is an immense and critical responsibility of the Clerk's Office due to the volume and types of records.
Below is a list of online resources for Frederick County Court Records. Email us with websites containing Frederick County Court Records by clicking the link below:
Virginia Immigration & Emigration Records - Immigration records help the family historian to understand the movements of their ancestry as they relocated to different parts of the world.
Click Here to Search Virginia Birth, Marriage & Death Records! - Birth, marriage, and death records are connected with central life events. They are prime sources for genealogical information. Look also for baptism, christening, and burial records in this collection.
Vital Statistics include the official recordation of marriages, births, and deaths. Bible records, cemetery records, and church records are private sources that may supplement the official records.
A law requiring the systematic statewide recording of births and deaths was passed by the General Assembly on April 11 1853. Every commissioner of revenue registered births and deaths in his district annually and forwarded the information to the clerk of court, who then supplied the information to the state Auditor of Public Accounts. This law continued in effect until 1896. The Auditor turned the lists over to the Bureau of Vital Statistics in 1918 and the registers were later transferred to the state archives.
The Library of Virginia has copies of surviving birth and death records for the period 1853 to 1896 and marriage records prior to 1936. Also you can order birth and death records online quickly and easily via VitalChek! Usually you recieve them in 2-5 days.
Virginia Department of Health, Office of Vital Records is located at The Shops at Willow Lawn,
1601 Willow Lawn Drive,
Suite 275,
Richmond, VA 23220;
Ph: (804) 662-6200. The mailing address is
VDH, Office of Vital Records,
and Health Statistics,
P.O. Box 1000,
Richmond, Virginia,
23218-1000. They have the following records:
Births and Deaths: 1853-1896 and June 1912 to present. Birth cards are no longer available. Only the cities of Hampton, Newport News, Norfolk and Richmond have records between 1896 and June 14, 1912. Click Here to Search the Social Security Death Index for FREE
Marriage Records: 1853 to the present. If the records are not available from the State office, they should be available from the Clerk of Court in county where the marriage license was issued.
Divorce Records: 1918 to the present. If the records are not available from the State office, they should be available from the Clerk of Court in county where the marriage license was issued.
Birth records are public information 100 years after the date of the event; death, marriage, and divorce records, 50 years after the event. Due to limited resources they are unable to conduct geneology searches. Contact the Library of Virginia for assistance at http://www.lva.lib.va.us/.
For all birth records, please allow 10 business days. All marriage records, death records, divorce records, non-automated birth records and documents requiring amendments, please allow a delivery time of 4 to 6 weeks. Marriage and divorce records are available at the Circuit Court in which the event took place. Recent death records are available at the local health department where the death certificate was filed. You can also order Order Electronically and get the certificates within 2-5 days by ordering HERE
The fee to search for a birth, Marriage or Death certificate is $12.00, which includes one certified copy of the certificate or a "Certificate of Failure to Find." Make checks and money orders should be made payable to "State Health Department ". Please do not send cash. Credit Cards may be uses by using VitalChek services. Fees are non refundable. Additional fees are required for expedited service. Mail all Applications to:Vital Records,
VDH, Office of Vital Records, and Health Statistics, P.O. Box 1000, Richmond, Virginia, 23218-1000 . You can download an application online for Birth, Death, Marriage or Divorce Certificates. You can also order Order Electronically and get the certificates within 2-5 days by ordering HERE
Below is a list of online resources for Frederick County Vital Records. Email us with websites containing Frederick County Vital Records by clicking the link below:
Death Records Indexing Project - partially completed cooperative project with the Virginia Genealogical Society; goal is to create a statewide index to the 1853-1896 locality death registers.
Click Here to Search Virginia Voter Lists & Census Records! - Few, if any, records reveal as many details about individuals and families as do government census records. Substitute records can be used when the official census is unavailable.
Countywide Records: Federal Population Schedules that exist for Frederick County, Virginia are 1810, 1820, 1830, 1840, 1850, 1860, 1870, 1880, 1890 (fragment, see below), 1900, 1910, 1920 and 1930. Other Federal Schedules to look at when researching your family tree in Frederick County, Virginia are Industry and Agriculture Schedules availible for the years 1850, 1860, 1870 and 1880. Slave Schedules exist for 1850 & 1860. The Mortality Schedules for the years 1850, 1860, 1870 and 1880.
Below is a list of online resources for Frederick County Census Records. Email us with websites containing Frederick County Census Records by clicking the link below:
Virginia Antique Maps & Atlases has images of old American atlases during the years 1795, 1814, 1822, 1823, 1836, 1838, 1845, 1856, 1866, 1879 and 1897 for Virginia and other states.
You can view rotating animated maps for Virginia showing all the county boundaries for each census year overlayed with past and present maps so you can see the changes in county boundaries. You can view a list of maps for other states at Census Maps
You can view rotating animated maps for Virginia showing all the county boundary changes for each year overlayed with past and present maps so you can see the changes in county boundaries . You can view a list of maps for other states and State Department of Transportation Maps at County Maps.
Below is a list of online resources for Frederick County Maps. Email us with websites containing Frederick County Maps by clicking the link below:
Click Here to Search Virginia Military Records! - Military and civil service records provide unique facts and insights into the lives of men and women who have served their country at home and abroad.
The uses and value of military records in genealogical research for ancestors who were veterans are obvious, but military records can also be important to re-searchers whose direct ancestors were not soldiers in any war. The fathers, grandfathers, brothers, and other close relatives of an ancestor may have served in a war, and their service or pension records could contain information that will assist in further identifying the family of primary interest. Due to the amount of genealogical information contained in some military pension files, they should never be overlooked during the research process. Those records not containing specific genealogical information are of historic value and should be included in any overall research design. A list of Wars fought on American. Read more detailed information on Virginia Military Records and the various wars.
Below is a list of online resources for Frederick County Military Records. Email us with websites containing Frederick County Military Records by clicking the link below:
Revolutionary War Rolls, 1775-1783 from the State of Virginia (The National Archives): View, Print Copy & Save Original Documents in NARA publication M246 include muster rolls, payrolls, strength returns, and other miscellaneous personnel, pay, and supply records of American Army units, 1775-83.
Southern Claims Commission from the State of Virginia (The National Archives): View, Print Copy & Save Original Documents In the 1870s, southerners claimed compensation from the U.S. government for items used by the Union Army, ranging from corn and horses, to trees and church buildings.
Virginia's
tax records are a rich—and largely untapped—resource.
During the Colonial period, there were three basic forms of
taxation: the quitrent, the parish levy, and the poll tax.
The quitrent was a land tax that had its roots in English
manorial society where “the land obligations due the manor,
such as plowing and haying the lord's land, were computed to
an annual money payment. Upon payment, the obligations were
`quit' for the year.” Those living south of the Rappahannock
River paid a quitrent to the Crown. An original, incomplete
list of land owners for the region in 1704 is in the Public
Record Office in London and has been published several times,
not always reliably. Residents of the Northern Neck, between
the Rappahannock and Potomac Rivers, paid quitrents to the agents
of Lord Fairfax. Many original rent rolls of the Fairfax proprietary
are housed at the Huntington Library in San Marino, California.
Extant original rent rolls and facsimiles for Virginia are available
at The
Library of Virginia.
The parish levy was an annual tax paid by all tithables
for support of their ministers, maintenance of the
parishes' glebe lands (the parsonage and lands producing income
for the parish), and support of the poor of the parish.
The poll tax, except for a brief period from 1645 to
1648, was the main source of revenue for the colony of Virginia.
The annual poll tax was computed by dividing the total expenses
of the colony and individual counties by the total number of
tithables. The result was levied on each tithable.
Tithables were variously defined during the colonial
period. The first definition, in 1624, was “every male
head above sixteen years of age.” All agricultural workers
were added in 1629. In 1643 all males and black females aged
sixteen or over were tithables. Imported male servants of any
age were added in 1649.
The definition of “tithable” was rewritten
in 1658. Tithables included free males aged sixteen or over,
imported blacks of either sex, imported white male servants,
and Indian servants of either sex; white women employed in agriculture
were added in 1662. Complaints from planters with increasing
numbers of indentured servants and slaves led to a revision
in 1680 that declared Virginia-born male slaves taxable at age
twelve and imported male servants taxable at age fourteen; nonwhite
women and free males remained taxable at age sixteen.
The laws of Virginia were revised in 1705. From then
until 1782, all males and nonwhite females aged sixteen or over
were tithables. Wives of free nonwhite males were added in 1723.
Virginia's tax system changed after the Revolutionary
War to include taxing land and personal property in 1782, with
further revision in 1787. The bulk of those tax lists prior
to 1850 survive and are available on microfilm at The
Library of Virginia.
Below is a list of online resources for Frederick County Tax Records. Email us with websites containing Frederick County Tax Records by clicking the link below:
The Repositories
in this section are Archives, Libraries, Museums, Genealogical
and Historical Societies. Many County Historical and Genealogical
Societies publish magazines and/or news letters on a monthly,
quarterly, bi-annual or annual basis. Contacting the local societies
should not be over looked. State Archives and Societies are
usually much larger and better organized with much larger archived
materials than their smaller county cousins but they can be
more generalized and over look the smaller details that local
societies tend to have. Libraries can also be a good place to
look for local information. Some libraries have a genealogy
section and may have some resources that are not located at
archives or societies. Also, take a special look at any museums
in the area. They sometimes have photos and items from years
gone by as well as information of a genealogical interest. All
these places are vitally important to the family genealogist
and must not be passed over.
Below is a list of online resources for Frederick County Genealogical Addresses. Email us with websites containing Frederick County Genealogical Addresses by clicking the link below:
Virginia
Genealogical Society, 5001
West Broad Street, Suite 115,
Richmond, Virginia 23230-3023;
Telephone (804) 285-8954 Please note that because of our close proximity to the
Library of Virginia and the Virginia Historical Society,
the Virginia Genealogical Society does not maintain a research
facility or surname material.
Virginia Historical Society, 428 North Boulevard, Richmond, Virginia 23220, Phone: 804.358.4901 Mail: P.O.Box 7311, 23221-0311;Hours: Monday-Saturday 10-5 / Sunday 1-5 (galleries only)
Virginia Newspapers & Periodicals Records - Newspapers and periodicals are the diaries of local communities. They are excellent sources of family history details - often recorded nowhere else. Look for obituaries, marriages, legal notices, and more found in our Historical Newspaper Archives.
Click Here to Search Virginia Obituary Records! - This database is a compilation of obituaries published in U.S. newspapers, collected from various online sources. Obituaries can vary in the amount of information they contain, but many of them are genealogical goldmines, including information such as names, dates, places of birth and death, marriage information, and family relationships.
Unlike New England, colonial Virginia left few early church records. The first Virginians were members of the Church of England, or Anglican church, which became the Episcopal Church in 1786. Early parish registers are incomplete and challenging to use. Parish boundaries changed rapidly and are hard to pinpoint.
Since colonial times, many religious groups have established congregations in Virginia, including Baptist, Catholic, Jewish, Lutheran, Presbyterian, and Quaker or Friends, to name a few. Except for the Quakers, few of these groups kept records containing such genealogical information as birth, marriage, and death dates. A number of church vestry books and registers have been published and are available at The Library of Virginia and the FHL.
The list of published tombstone inscriptions for Virginia, if a comprehensive list existed, would be lengthy. The DAR has compiled an extensive collection of Virginia tombstone inscriptions. The collection, along with other cemetery record publications, can be found at the DAR Library in Washington, D.C., The Library of Virginia, the Virginia Historical Society, and the FHL.
Cemetery interment registers and gravestone inscriptions may often be sources of useful information for Virginia researchers. The state government does not have a long, uninterrupted, centralized file of birth and death records that are readily accessible to researchers. Wars, floods, and fires have destroyed the vital record of many of Virginia's counties. Oftentimes, information found in cemetery records and on gravestones cannot be found anywhere else. When looking for a specific cemetery in Virginia, you may wish to start with the following comprehensive resource.
Below is a list of online resources for Frederick County Cemetery & Church Records. Email us with websites containing Frederick County Cemetery & Church Records by clicking the link below:
J. Henry Brown Monuments Inc., Order Book - a searchable database indexing tombstone inscriptions covering the period 1899-1907. Many of the individuals listed were born before Virginia began keeping vital statistics in 1853.
Click Here to Search Virginia Family Tree Records! - The use of published genealogies, electronic files containing genealogical lineage, and other compiled sources can be of tremendous value to a researcher.
When view family trees online or not, be sure to only take the info at face value and always follow up with your own sources or verify the ones they provide. Below is a list of online resources for Frederick County Family Trees, web forums and other family type information . Email us with websites containing Frederick County Family Trees, web forums and other family type information by clicking the link below:
Genealogy Encyclopedia: General Abbreviations, Early Illnesses, Nickname Meanings, Worldwide Epidemics, Early Occupations, Common Terms, Censuses Explained, Free Genealogical Forms
Nichols and Related Families of Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virgina.
Virginia Family & Local History Records - The Family & Local Histories Collection lets you read journals, memoirs, and other first-hand historical narratives right on your computer. Gathered from some of the world's finest libraries, these materials may provide hard-to-find town, county, and state information; tax records and wills; military, church, and court records; as well as photographs, stories, and maps.
For 12,000 years a sparse population of Indians lived in this area, but many more traveled through on the Indian Path from New York and Pennsylvania to winter in Georgia and South Carolina. The first Europeans to come through the Shenandoah Valley were Jesuit missionaries in 1632, and details of this wilderness area were first shown on a map by a Frenchman, Samuel de Champlain.
English ownership of Frederick County was originally by the Virginia Company but was taken over by the Crown in 1624. In 1649, Charles II granted seven royalist supporters the land "bounded by and within the heads" of the Potomac and Rappahannock Rivers. By 1681, Thomas, the Second Lord Culpeper, owned most of this original land grant. After he died in 1689, his daughter married Thomas, the Fifth Lord Fairfax, and later, their son Thomas, the Sixth Lord Fairfax, inherited the whole land grant.
By the 1650's various traders, trappers, and explorers were coming to the Shenandoah Valley. Dr. John Lederer from Hamburg, Germany documented his visit to the Valley in 1670 in his diary. An English colonel, Cadwallader Jones, explored the central Valley in 1673, and in 1716, Governor Alexander Spotswood and his fifty "Knights of the Golden Horseshoe" crossed into the Valley through Swift Run Gap and returned with glowing accounts.
Englishmen settled the piedmont, then pushed west by foot and horse through passes in the Blue Ridge, and many more German and Scotch-Irish settlers came down the valleys from Philadelphia and Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Some of the earliest settlers were Quakers who built the Hopewell Friends Meeting House which still stands near Clearbrook. These settlers were attracted by the fertile soils and the abundant forest and water resources.
The Government of Colonial Virginia wanted this wilderness settled as quickly as possible, as a buffer against Indians; but Robert "King" Carter, Lord Fairfax's agent, was settling Fairfax's land slowly in large plantations. The government of Virginia had chartered counties in the land grant as settlement spread up the Northern Neck and west through the land grant. Virginia began to argue that Fairfax's land grant ended at the Blue Ridge, and began granting up to 1,000 acres each to settler families west of the Blue Ridge.
Virginia gave particular developers the right to recruit settlers and sell them up to 1,000 acres per family within a general "grant" area. Each parcel would revert to Virginia unless settled with a house and orchard within two years.
Abraham Hollingsworth settled near the site of Abrams Delight in about 1729. Owen Thomas and Jeremiah Smith came to Back Creek in 1730 and settled on 806 acres granted in Thomas' name. Smith left and returned with a wife before 1741. His log cabin is now part of a house west of Back Creek and south of Route 50. In 1732, Jost Hite settled 16 families on his 5,000 acre "grant" and built Hite's Fort at Bartonsville.
The Indian Path became the Great Wagon Road and Indians were dispossessed westward by treaty and force of arms. Frederick County was created from western Orange County by the House of Burgesses on December 21, 1738 and was named after the Prince of Wales. James Wood, County Surveyor for Orange County, platted a town at the County seat, which he named Winchester, after his birthplace. It consisted of 26 half-acre lots and three streets within 1300 acres, which he claimed as wilderness land owned by Virginia. Those streets are now Loudoun, Boscawen and Cameron.
County government in Virginia was originally by self-perpetuating courts. Frederick County's Court was proclaimed and organized in 1743, and its officials took their oaths of office on November 11 of that year. It first met at the surveying office of its clerk, James Wood, at the site on which he later built his estate, called Glen Burnie.
By 1743, the Frederick County Court admitted that Lord Fairfax's land included the County. At the age of 16, George Washington was a member of a surveying party that came to Frederick County for Lord Fairfax in 1748. In 1749, Lord Fairfax moved to Frederick County and built his home, Greenway Court, at White Post, in present-day Clarke County. He accepted Wood's 1,300 acre claim and other additional lots at Winchester. Eventually, eleven other counties would be created from the 3,824 square miles included in the original Frederick County.
George Washington was associated with Winchester and Frederick County between the years of 1748 and 1765. Early during those years, he maintained a surveying office in Winchester. During the French and Indian War, he was given a Commission and later made Commander in Chief of the colonial forces with headquarters in Winchester. Washington held his first elective offices representing Frederick County, having been elected to the house of Burgesses in 1758 and 1761.
Although there were no battles or military engagements in Frederick County during the Revolutionary War, the area was very important in the effort. General Daniel Morgan, who lived in eastern Frederick County (now Clarke County), and his "Long Rifles" played a prominent role in many battles of the Revolutionary War, including the Battle at Cowpens in South Carolina. Several local citizens furnished the troops with food and supplies, including Isaac Zane who supplied the army with ammunition made at his ironworks in Marlboro. Many prisoners captured during the War were held in Winchester and Frederick County.
By 1779, the number of British prisoners held in Winchester had increased so much that it was decided to build a larger prison. A barracks was built four miles west of Winchester to hold these prisoners whose number had increased to 1,600 by the year 1781.
During the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, life in the current Frederick County area centered around small family farms. Local farms tended to be smaller than farms to the east. During this period, wheat production became the center of the local economy, along with cattle production. In 1820, there were fifty flour mills in Frederick County along with numerous sawmills, tanneries, and other business activities.
Economic life was centered around Winchester and other local towns including Stephens City, Middletown, Kernstown, Gainesboro and Gore. There were a large number and diversity of craftsmen and merchants in these towns. The strongest influence on the local economy was the Great Wagon Road, which later became U.S. Route 11 and which carried settlers and travelers from Philadelphia, south through the Valley and to the west. Activity associated with this road made Winchester one of the largest towns in western Virginia.
Frederick County played a significant part in the Civil War. The northern Shenandoah Valley supplied food, livestock, horses, and soldiers to the southern cause. The Valley was also important because of its strategic location in relation to Washington D.C. The town of Winchester changed hands in the war about 70 times, an average of once every three weeks for four years.
Major local battles included the First Battle of Kernstown in March of 1862, during which General Stonewall Jackson suffered his only tactical defeat during the Valley Campaign but did succeed in keeping Union troops in the Valley from leaving to reinforce McClellan on the peninsula. In May of 1862, Jackson's army defeated the Union troops at the First Battle of Winchester.
In the Second Battle of Winchester in 1863, confederate troops successfully attacked and defeated Union troops occupying forts on the western side of Winchester. Union troops were again defeated at the second battle of Kernstown in 1864.
At the Third Battle of Winchester, General Philip Sheridan's Union troops successfully attacked confederate troops at Winchester. With the high numbers of losses on both sides, a new war of attrition was to begin in the Valley from which the southern forces would never recover. For three weeks in 1864, Sheridan's troops undertook the infamous "Burning" to end Confederate strength in the Valley. Union troops burned 2,000 barns, 120 mills, and a half a million bushels of grain and confiscated 50,000 head of livestock in the Valley. Virginia's richest valley was left desolate.
In October of 1864, Jubal Early's Confederate troops were entrenched south of Cedar Creek. The Union troops were encamped just north of Cedar Creek. A surprise attack by the Confederates drove the Union troops to the north. General Sheridan rallied his troops and attacked, driving the Confederates back across Cedar Creek. This victory helped boost Union morale and helped President Lincoln win reelection.
The Civil War period brought much destruction and economic hardship to Frederick County, due to the county's strategic location in the Valley. Many farms, mills, and dwellings were damaged or destroyed, and the county's economic productivity was greatly reduced. The Reconstruction period was characterized by a slow economic recovery from damages suffered, and by the 1880's economic stability gradually returned. After the war, old economic activities resumed and new activities began. New businesses included a tannery, dairying, farm machinery, and shipping.
There was a tremendous building boom in the county during the period of 1880-1900. In addition to new construction, older structures were often enlarged and "updated" using modern building techniques and styles. This growth occurred in both rural areas and in small communities that had previously developed in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. New communities were also formed as a consequence of newer, more advanced transportation systems including the automobile and the railroad. Among the communities that experienced growth during this period were Meadow Mills, Hayfield, Gore, Mountain Falls, Mount Williams, Gravel Springs, Gainesboro, Albin, Brucetown, White Hall and Armel.
Industrial activity also slowly resumed after the Civil War. According to one source, by 1890, Frederick County had 37 mills, eight woolen factories, a steam elevator, two iron foundries, four glove factories, a boot and shoe factory, ten broom factories, four tanneries, a large paper mill, three newspapers, a book bindery, eight cigar factories, three marble yards, and two furniture factories.
In the early twentieth century, there was rapid industrial growth in Frederick County. There was a phenomenal rise in apple production, with apples replacing wheat as the primary cash crop. Many new facilities were developed relating to apple production and processing. Later in the twentieth century, the local economy had diversified to include a range of different industrial activities. Activities continue to be based on the accessibility of the area and on north-south travel along the route that was once the Great Wagon Road and is now Route 11 and Interstate 81.
The following companies are currently offering free trials on their subscriptions from 7 to 14 days. You can receive more information by clicking the links below:
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