| Yesterday morning the computer interest group met. Several members
commented that they were not familiar with ways to search for family. I
told them I would build this page today and put in links and explain what is
available at each.
http://worldconnect.genealogy.rootsweb.com/
Rootsweb World Connect is the new free GEDCOM from Rootsweb. At this
address you can find two links. One to upload you GEDCOM. Detailed
instructions are on our GEDCOM page. You can also go to SEARCH.
There are about 12 million names already uploaded and their goal is 100 million
names by the end of the year. This is a very good site to search. It
allows you to narrow your search by last and first name and also by state.
GENDEX, by Gene
Stark Another great site. Fill in the surname you are looking
for in the second box. You will get links to that surname plus variant
spellings. This site takes a bit longer than Rootsweb and you cannot
narrow by location. This is the oldest site of this type and you may have
good luck here.
USGENWEB Archives Search
This site takes a bit of playing with. It will search for all documents
pertaining to genealogy that have been uploaded to all USGENWEB sites including
Census, wills, cemeteries, deeds, bibles, family histories. They give
directions on the page on how to search the site but I would advise you to try
several ways, for instance, "Rod McDonald" or "McDonald,
Rod" Don't forget to pick the state. You may need to search
several. There is an abundance of information here but plan on spending
some time.
GenForum This site is a
discussion forum by surname. In the search box type in the surname you
want to research. That will bring you to the forum for that name.
They archive their queries chronologically so you will have to do a bit of
scrolling and looking around to find what you need. You can post queries
here and also email others who are researching the same lines as you are.
Family Tree Maker This
can be a frustrating site but when you hit pay dirt it is wonderful. This
will take quite a bit of time and scrolling to find what you need. Don't
forget, their main goal is to sell you CD's so you will get lots of links to
their products for sale. They do cross reference GENDEX so you will get
hits there plus their own web sites.
Library of Virginia Colonial Records
Project This is the most difficult site of all to search. Don't
forget to search by name both ways, First Last; Last, First. Good luck!
Rootsweb Home Page This page
will get you to:
RootsWeb
Surname List (founded 1988), containing over 782,000 surname entries,
and the
ROOTS-L
Mailing List (founded 1987).The
USGenWeb Project,
USGenWeb
Archives,
WorldGenWeb,
GenConnect,
SOCIAL SECURITY DEATH
INDEX,
USGenWeb Tombstone Project, Immigrant Ship Transcribers Guild,
and
many others. It is incredible in the information available
here.
Mapping programs and sites. Sometimes wills and other tools you
need do not exist. Another good way to find the descendants is by mapping
the land from deeds. There are a few sites that may help. One is
http://www.topozone.com/
This is a searchable site. Some of it is a bit difficult to read but shows
the lay of the land, rivers, streams, etc. Another site is
http://geog.gmu.edu/gess/classes/geog380/27mapping.html
. Here you will find many links to historical maps of Virginia. Here
is one program I have found. I haven't used it yet but it looks very
interesting.
http://www.ultranet.com/~deeds/
It is called Deed Mapper. You can put in the metes and bounds from a deed,
connect it to a stream or river or other identifier and it will place your deed
on the map. Then you can compare it with a modern map, or buy the add on
for the program, and you can go see where your ancestors lived. This
program is not cheap, but definitely looks interesting. Tiger Maps
http://tiger.census.gov/
is another resource. You can add layers to your search. The one
shortcoming here is there is no watercourse layer.
www.familysearch.org Another site
that should be mentioned is the LDS site. Like many other sites this needs
a caveat. Many folks think that the Mormon church does genealogy.
What they really do is collect and share other peoples work. What you find
here is unproven. This is a great place to find very good clues on where
to look and who may be related. All information should be verified by
you. Use this site as a guideline only.
The William & Mary Quarterly is no longer available online.
http://lcweb.loc.gov/coll/nucmc/
Another site you may not be familiar with. It is called NUCMC for
short. the real name is National Union Catalog for Manuscript Collections.
It is a searchable data base much like the USGENWEB Archives...but it is for
searching the manuscript collections that are hidden in libraries all over the
place. It is really handy for finding that unpublished book that was left
to Aunt Ida in Minnesota about your Johns Ancestors in VA...the book that
donated to the University of Minnesota library....a place where you would NEVER
have thought to look.
GENEALOGICAL RESEARCH IN EARL GREGG SWEM
LIBRARY, COLLEGE OF WILLIAM AND MARY
www.swem.wm.edu/Resources/subject/VaGenealogy/index.html
By Merle A. Kimball, Serials, Preservation and Local History
Librarian
Earl Gregg Swem Library, College of William and Mary, has a number of resources
for doing research on genealogy and family history. There are "how-to" books and
various guides and advanced bibliographic tools available for the researcher.
This article is intended to provide some of the resources available and to
emphasize that the Library has a wide variety of materials which may assist you
in your research. Specific titles are given in order to provide a sense of the
scope of materials available.
One should begin with the Library's online catalog, LION, and do subject and
keyword searches if you do not have specific titles that you are trying to find.
The best way to access our microform collection is through the online catalog as
some of the collections have not been arranged by subject area. The microfiche
collection is arranged by size of microfiche and then alphabetically by author.
Many family genealogies and histories are in the microfiche collection and can
be found by a subject search. An online subject search will provide information
on the materials in both the microform and printed collections. It will also
identify family histories which are contained within another family history. One
example of a family history in the microfiche collection is The Records of
the Descendants of John Fuller,
Newton, 1644-1688, by Samuel Clarke.
Family histories can be retrieved in the online catalog by using the last name
and adding the word "family", e.g. Fuller family.
A
keyword search such as "Tennessee" will bring up any material about Tennessee,
including materials in the microform collections and the Manuscripts and Rare
Books collections. It may result in too many entries to go through so the search
can narrowed by adding such words as "genealogy" or "history". The Reference
staff can assist you in searching the online catalog.
There are a number of county histories in the stacks and in the microfiche
collection. They can be found by searching the online catalog by using the city,
county, state, or locality followed by the word "history", e.g. Culpeper County,
Virginia (space) history. One can just key in Culpeper County and this will
result any subject heading with this heading from biographies to taxation lists.
There are a number of county histories available such as Henry and St. Clair
Counties, Missouri, or Idaho County, Idaho.
General genealogical reference tools are shelved in the classification CS71 of
the Reference stacks. The Genealogical Periodical Annual Index is shelved
here along with the PERiodical Source Index which is being published by
the Allen County Public Library in Ft. Wayne, Indiana. This index is also
available through Ancestry.com which is available in the Library. The
Passenger and Immigration Index and its' supplements are shelved here.
Another genealogical index which is helpful is the American
Genealogical-Biographical Index to American Genealogical Biographical, and Local
History Materials which is shelved in the general stacks. The Greenlaw
Index of the New England Historic Genealogical Society serves as an index to
their materials and provides another access point for a particular person or
family in a collection that would be hard to find otherwise.
There are a number of historical bibliographies and guides in "E" and "F"
sections in Reference and the general stacks. Gazetteers and atlases are
available, also, including the Omni Gazetteer of the United States of America.
This is a particularly good gazetteer as it provides the locations of tiny
towns, cemeteries, etc. The information on the location of cemeteries are
particularly helpful. There are biographical dictionaries and indexes such as
Dictionary of North Carolina
Biography, Biography and Genealogy Master Index,
and American Biographical Index..
To
begin researching your Virginia ancestor, start in the Reference Room's
"Virginia" collection. Basic volumes of Virginia genealogy and history are in
this collection. There are many more volumes of Virginia local history in the
general stacks. Early Virginia ancestors need to be checked in The
Biographical Dictionary of Early
Virginia, 1607-1660. This dictionary
is on microfiche and is kept in a notebook in the Virginia Reference collection.
It indexes every person who came into Virginia, even if they were on their way
to New England or other locality.
The United States censuses on microfilm are available for all areas through
1830. The Library has the census indexes for 1790-1850 for all states, plus the
later census indexes for Virginia. Only the indexes for the census microfilm
which Swem has are in the Reference Room. Rest of the census indexes are shelved
with each state in the history section. Swem Library has all the Virginia
censuses through 1920, plus the microfilm for the United States mortality
schedules for Virginia for 1850, 1860, and 1870. The North Carolina censuses for
1840 and 1850 are available along with some other microfilm censuses.
The Library has the microfilm copy of the Papers of the Continental Congress,
1774-1789. It is indexed by John P. Butler's Index, Papers of the
Continental Congress. The collection includes many state documents and some
of them date before 1774. An example is a petition regarding the New
Hampshire-New York controversy over Vermont.
There are a number of Civil War records on microfilm. Among the collections are:
Records of the Commissioners of Claims which consists of claims filed
with the federal government regarding property destroyed by the Union Army,
confiscation of livestock, etc., during and after the Civil War. It has a
consolidated index. Another collection is the Records of the
Virginia Forces, 1861.
This covers the confederate records for Virginia.
Some of the other microform collections which may be useful are: The United
States Direct Tax of 1798: Tax Lists for the State of Pennsylvania,
Philadelphia, Lancaster, Chester, Delaware, Bucks, and Montgomery Counties,
the Massachusetts Local Tax Lists Through 1776, Early Massachusetts
Records for the towns of Acton, Bedford, Carlisle, Concord, Lexington, and
Lincoln. The Massachusetts Archives includes manuscripts and other
documents for the colonial period, mostly official, but they could be helpful if
your ancestor was involved in a dispute with the state or wrote the state for
any number of reasons. There is information on the Indians in Massachusetts in
this collection. Another microfilm collection available for the Massachusetts
researcher is the Corbin Manuscript Collection In the New England Historic
Genealogical Society. This collection contains material pertaining to
central and western Massachusetts for 1650-1850. The table of contents are on
reel 1 and there is also a guidebook for the 60 reels.
Other collections of interest are the microfilm of the Sanborn Fire Insurance
Maps for Virginia, the microfiche for the Historic Buildings Survey for
Virginia, microfiche for the James City County Personal Property Tax
Lists, 1782-1861, Williamsburg-James City County Tax Book, 1768-1769,
and the York County's Sheriff's Execution Book, 1789-1795.
The microfilm collection of Antibellum plantation records in the various
libraries and repositories around the United States are in the Library. The
first set papers microfilmed were the collections at the University of South
Carolina, then the papers at Duke University. The plantation records microfilm
includes diaries, some with births, marriages and deaths recorded, papers
regarding the estate, the slaves, etc.
Another microfilm collection of interest are the Chester County, Pennsylvania,
estate papers for 1700-1810. American Directories Through 1860 are
available in the microfiche collection. The directories for each city are not
listed in the online catalog. The bibliographies must be used to determine
whether there is a directory on microfiche for a particular city. The
bibliographies are: Bibliography of American Directories Through 1860 by
Dorothea Spear and City Directories of The
United States, 1860-1901.
Swem Library has a historic newspaper collection on microfilm. All of these
newspapers have been cataloged and can be located through our online catalog.
They are arranged by call number in the historic newspaper collection. The
collection consists of colonial and early national newspapers and newspapers
published before, during and after the Civil War. The Library has many of the
Virginia newspapers for the nineteenth century. The
Richmond Times Dispatch, Daily Press,
and Virginia Gazette are available in their entirety. The Virginian
Pilot is available from ? to April 1991. There are newspapers available for
the twentieth century and they are included in this collection, also.
Rare Books in Special Collections has a large number of newspapers. These
newspapers have been cataloged and can be located in the online catalog. Many of
the newspapers have only scattered holdings which are given on the online
catalog. There are early newspapers from the 1810s, a newspaper printed during
the Mexican War of 1848, Civil War newspapers, Afro-American newspapers and
other special interest newspapers. Many of the newspapers must be used with care
as they are very fragile.
Obituaries did not appear in an extended form in newspapers until the 1880's and
1890's, depending upon the importance of the person. Announcements of births and
marriages, particularly births, were erratically published in early newspapers.
Marriages appeared more frequently than either births or deaths. Extracts have
been made of this information from various newspapers and published. The Library
has some of these publications, such as: An Historical Digest of the
Provincial Press : Being a Collection of All Items of Personal and Historical
Reference Relating to American Affairs Printed in the Newspapers of the
Provincial Period, or Marriages and Deaths From the Maryland Gazette,
1727-1839, or Kentucky Obituaries, 1787-1854.
Many records of churches, abstracts of wills, probates of estates and family
genealogies have appeared in various genealogical and historical journals and
have been published separately as books. Swem Library has most of the state
historical society journals and publications. Some of the earlier historical
journals have genealogical and local history information in them, along with the
publication of original source materials. About the 1940's, the nature of the
material published in these journals changed to scholarly articles.
Swem Library has a number of genealogical periodicals which can be located in
our online catalog along with the volumes held by the Library. Some of the
titles are: The Mayflower Descendant, New York Genealogical and
Biographical Record, New England Historic Genealogical Register, North Carolina
Genealogical Society Journal, Connecticut Nutmegger, Genealogical Magazine of
New Jersey, Nebraska and Midwest Genealogical Record. There are several
titles from New York state, Ohio, and other areas. The Journal of the
Johannes Schwalm Association is about the Schwalm family but also includes
much information on the Hessian soldiers who fought in the American Revolution
and remained in the United States. Original diaries and other materials are
published in this Journal. People are continually donating their genealogical
journals to the library, making them accessible to others so it is wise to check
our online catalog once in a while.
There are a
number of printed genealogies and family histories in the collection along with
family association periodicals, such as: The Deans of
Dorchester, Maryland, The Henkel Family Record
and the Graves Family Newsletter. We receive several family periodicals
on an ongoing basis as complimentary subscriptions.
The Library has
a number of the printed Massachusetts vital records and has acquired the
Barbour Collection of Connecticut Town Vital Records. The Collections of
the Holland Society of New York and Year Book of the Holland Society of
New York contain vital records for the Dutch who settled New York. The
Publications of the Pennsylvania German Society has baptisms, marriages and
other information in the volumes.
Some of the
nineteenth century religious periodicals often included notices of marriages and
deaths of ministers, prominent church members, well-known people. Most of the
journals are shelved with the books on a particular religious group, such as
The Journal of the Friends' Historical Society.
Early tax lists
are very helpful in locating families and establishing them in a particular
locality. The Library has the 1787 tax lists for Virginia and there are others
available for various areas.
Swem Library
has a large number of printed records of the American colonies, during the
Revolution, and the early years of the American republic for all thirteen
states. This includes the Pennsylvania Archives, Revolutionary Records
of the State of Georgia, The
Original Patentees of Land at Washington Prior to 1700,
Records of the Court of New Castle on
Delaware.
The resources
in the Manuscripts collection of Swem Library includes personal letters,
genealogical charts, unpublished genealogies, diaries, ledgers for businesses,
personal account books, copies of or the actual document for marriages, wills,
probate of estates, lawsuits of various kinds, Bible records, recipes and other
items. The major collections have been entered in our online catalog and are
searchable by subject entries.
The separate
genealogy collection consists of manuscripts and various materials which were
collected by Dr. Earl Gregg Swem when he was publishing materials in the
William and Mary Quarterly, second series. It contains newspaper clippings,
coats of arms, genealogical charts, etc. There are a number of typed and
handwritten genealogies included in this collection. Sometimes there will be
only one item relating to a particular family. There is extensive information
for several families such as the collection on the Hill family of Bertie, Martin
and Halifax Counties of North Carolina and Virginia. Most of this collection is
available on microfilm through the Family History Centers.
There is a
large collection of manuscripts for the Tyler family since Lyon G. Tyler was one
of the presidents of the College of William and Mary and the editor for
Tyler's Quarterly Historical and Genealogical Magazine and the first series
of the William and Mary Quarterly. Besides papers on the College and
family papers, the Tyler collection includes letters written to Lyon G. Tyler
regarding genealogical problems. Unluckily, Mr. Tyler did not keep copies of his
replies to the queries. Many of the letters include extensive genealogical
information in an effort to explain the problem the writer was encountering with
the family history. The inventory of the Tyler family papers must be used to
find out which families are included in this collection. It includes a copy of
the Abingdon Parish, Gloucester County, register and biographical material on
various people. There are notebooks of handcopied records from the peninsula,
such as the Elizabeth City and York County records from the 1600s. Mr. Tyler
copied some deeds and wills in full; others were just extracted from the
original record. There are some cemetery inscriptions included in these notes.
There is a manuscript genealogy of the Elam family and other families.
The Tyree
collection consists of 624 research notebooks compiled by S. Young Tyree and
contains extracts from the county records at the Library of Virginia, such as :
wills, deeds, census records, tax records, newspaper articles, etc. These
extracted records are in regard to the Tyree family and families from Henrico,
Buckingham, Chesterfield, New Kent, Goochland and York counties. The notebooks
contain information on families who moved out of the state of Virginia. Some of
the records copied have additional notes in regard to that family. This
collection is helpful in many ways but particularly if one is tracing the Tyree
family. In fact, this collection is one exception to the rule to check out all
other sources first before consulting a manuscript collection if you are related
to the Tyree and allied families.
The Virginia
county collection consists of miscellaneous records for the following counties:
Albemarle, Amherst, Bedford, Botetourt, Buckingham, Caroline, Gloucester (mainly
19th century), James City, New Kent, Powhatan, Rappahannock,
Southampton and Warwick (17th century). The online catalog and
inventories should be consulted for manuscripts pertaining to these and other
counties. There are large collections of manuscripts for Gloucester and Warwick
counties and these consist of miscellaneous papers, some original, some copies,
of receipts, bills of sale, bonds, land grants, orders, account books,
indentures, deeds, legal papers, and letters. The Warwick county records are
microfilmed and are available on interlibrary loan. There are materials for
Rockingham county from 1797-1813 and Fredericksburg for 1789-1840. Even though
there are only a few papers in the Virginia County manuscripts collection for
some counties, there may be a number of related papers in other collections.
There are papers relating to 178 lawsuits for Franklin County from 1772-1800 and
Rockingham County law suits from 1797-1813.
There are
county and city records or copies of them included in many of the family
manuscript collections. Another type of county record are the account books and
ledgers for businesses, etc. A medical account book from 1852-1871 for a doctor
in James City County includes accounts for taking care of slaves. P. R. Page, of
Gloucester County, kept a farm book from 1856-1861. It is a diary with personal
notes and farm news. There are the Jesse P. Fry business correspondence,
receipts, notes, and tax bills for Frederick County from 1866-1899.
The Upshur
family papers date from 1662-1936. Most of the papers were accumulated by Thomas
Teakle Upshur, a historian of the Eastern Shore of Virginia. It includes
letters, genealogical notes, accounts, legal documents, etc., for the Upshur
family and other eastern shore families. There is an alphabetical index of names
by the first letter only in the first notebook of this collection. It includes
the three volume handwritten work, Genealogies of the Kingdom of Accomack,
by Thomas Teakle Upshur. This collection has been microfilmed to reduce the wear
and tear on the original manuscript material and is available in Special
Collections.
There are three
parts to the Stubbs family papers. The first collection is the correspondence
and genealogical data collected by William Carter Stubbs and his wife,
Elizabeth. This collection contains over 240 family names and the card catalog
and the inventory provides an index to these names. There are copies of Bible
records, including a number of them for the Ferguson family.
The second part
of the Stubbs papers contains material collected by William Carter Stubbs and
his wife on Gloucester County. A copy of the Abingdon parish register, the
Gloucester County poll book for 1810, and the Masonic book of the Botetourt
Lodge, 1800-1809 are in this collection. The collection also includes two
handwritten genealogies with notes for publishing, titled: A History of Two
Virginia Families Transplanted From County Kent, England, Thomas Baytop and John
Catlett, and The Descendants of Thomas Stubbs of Cappahosia, Gloucester
County, Virginia. Obituaries and other newspaper clippings are inserted in
these notebooks.
The Thomas
Jefferson Stubbs papers are from an earlier Stubbs family in Gloucester. It also
includes wills, copies of legal papers, genealogical notes and other
information.
The Lee
Nicholson papers consists of genealogical notes, manuscripts and letters for
1827-1938, from Surry County. It is arranged by the surname of the family.
The
Tucker-Coleman papers include the Tucker family tree, charts and notebooks
compiled by Charles Washington Coleman. There are a number of other items in
this collection. The inventories should be consulted for a complete description
of the collection.
The Southall
papers are valuable for research in the burned counties. The papers date from
1807 to 1904 and most of them are from Peyton Alexander Southall, 1804-1855, and
George Washington Southall, 1810-1851, who were lawyers in Williamsburg. The
collection is divided into several parts, letters, legal cases and estates,
accounts, and personal papers. The letters are listed individually in the
inventory for the collection by the person who wrote the letter and to whom it
was written, plus the date. There are a number of letters from various
individuals wanting one of the Southalls to either bring a lawsuit against
someone or collect money owed to them. The Southalls traveled frequently between
Richmond, the peninsula, and Gloucester.
There are a
number of legal cases from James City County, 73 folders, Charles City County,
Williamsburg, Gloucester County, and from other areas included in the Southall
papers, mostly early nineteenth century. There are legal papers regarding
slaves; indentures and a copy of the Elizabeth City County Court docket for
1834-1848. The notes include summaries of wills, extracts of correspondence
regarding legal cases, lists of contents of estates, etc.
A few church
records have been given to the Manuscript Department. There is the minute book
of the Parish Aid Society of Bruton Parish Church, 1905-1914. The Wilkin papers
from Woodstock, Virginia, contains the papers of the German community and the
German Reformed Church. Some of these papers are in old German script and date
from around 1800 to the 1840s. The records of the Gloucester Circuit of the
Methodist Church are in the collection. The earliest manuscript is a list of
members in 1829. There are lists of each class, with comments on whether the
person had left the church, died, transferred to another church, etc. There does
not seem to be any information on marriages or deaths in these records. This
particular Methodist circuit included Shackleford and several other little towns
in the area. There is a photostat copy of the Elizabeth River Parish vestry book
for 1747-1761. There is a list of the members for the Tabb Street Presbyterian
Church for 1867 in the collection for Petersburg.
The Manuscripts
Department has a large number of account books. Many of them are in the
manuscript card catalog under Account Books and arranged chronologically. They
can also be found by looking up a location, for example, Shenandoah County --
Account Books. There are account books from other states in the collection. Some
of the account books are: Ninian Boog, 1750-1751, of King and Queen County. He
was a Scottish merchant; Col. James Madison's accounts; Francis Jerdne accounts
from 1736; the day book for Traveler's Rest Inn in Louisa County, Virginia, and
Montgomery County, Kentucky.
The account
books in the Overton papers date from the 1720s to the 1760s. One account book
recorded a bet of 5 shillings that Esther McGehee was 20 years old, not 21
years, in 1762. Then the author noted an account with William McGehee on the
purchase of a lottery ticket. His wife and daughter, Esther, were witnesses to
the purchase of the ticket. This account book contained several notes regarding
disputes with people and were written as if they were legal documents. The
Overton papers contained a number of interesting documents, including a stud
record and baptismal records for 1720-1742. The Overton family papers included
the related families of Ragland, Claybrook and Hart families of Louisa County,
Virginia, and Haywood County, Tennessee. Much of this material was published in
A History of Louisa County,
Virginia, by Malcolm H. Harris.
The Manuscripts
Department has a photostatic copy of the Virginia quitrent lists in 1704 for
twenty counties. The lists give the names of the landowners and the acres held
by each person. The originals are in the British Public Record Office and copies
at the Library of Congress.
The Garth
family papers from 1800-1854 includes accounts and slave documents from
1798-1833, mainly bills of sale. An 1837 letter mentioned the death of their
slave Johnson. There were letters regarding a suicide in the family. The papers
of the Garrett family, 1786-1928, includes accounts, clerk fees and muster fines
for 1834-1845. The Juliet Hite Gallaher papers of Waynesboro consists of
correspondence regarding genealogies from 1916-1940, and ancestry for the
Daughters of the American Revolution and the Daughters of the Confederacy. The
Clark family papers of Amelia County, Virginia, is primarily letters to Lottie
V. Clark from friends and family in Amelia and Chesterfield Counties from
1888-1895. The Elizabeth Ironmonger collection has a number of genealogies for
York County families. The Dromgoole family papers are about nineteenth century
businesses from Virginia and North Carolina.
There are the
Skipwith family papers which begin with Sir Peyton Skipwith and Lady Jean
Skipwith and "Prestwould", their plantation in Mecklenburg Co., Virginia. It
includes papers of their son, Humberstone, and grandchildren, from the 1760s to
the 1900s. The papers are primarily plantation records.
The James
Monroe papers contain genealogical information on his nephew's family from
1806-1860. The Waring family papers are mainly for the brothers, Henry, Thomas
and William, during the Revolutionary War years, 1778-1780, from Essex County,
Virginia. The Floyd L. Whitehead papers for 1805-1881, include the pool and fee
books for Nelson County. Mr. Whitehead was the Sheriff of Nelson County and
includes papers for his tenure as sheriff, including the deputy sheriff fee
books for 1821-1837. The Whittle family papers, for 1790-1880, from Norfolk,
consist mainly of the papers of Conway Whittle, 1800-1881, a lawyer. The Jesse
P. Fry papers, 1866-1899, include business correspondence, receipts, and tax
bills, of Meadow Mills, Frederick County, Virginia.
John Walter
Wayland, 1892-1940, was the chairman of the History Department at Madison
College until 1931. His papers reflect his interest in the history of Rockingham
County and the Valley of Virginia. He corresponded with many people who were
descendants of the early settlers and were requesting information on their
families. He kept copies of his replies to these people.
The William H.
Weaver papers of Warren and Frederick County, Virginia, for 1822-1879, included
information on the Weaver and Keeding families. The Sylvester Welch papers of
Fauquier County, 1809-1911, includes letters, court summons and orders, accounts
and receipts.
There are a
number of diaries in the Manuscripts collection. The diaries of Cloe Tyler
Whittle Green of Norfolk and Molly Eliot Seawell of Gloucester, an
anti-suffragist, are included in this collection.
There are many
other resources available in Swem Library, such as the Victoria county histories
for England, some vital records for Canada and other materials. Anyone is
welcome to come to the Library and use the materials. Some of the printed
materials can be borrowed on interlibrary loan; however, some of them are too
fragile to be loaned. People living in the area can check materials out by
becoming a Friend of Earl Gregg Swem Library. All of the manuscript materials
must be used in the Special Collections Reading room. The Reference staff and
Manuscripts staff will answer letters for specific information but please do not
ask for everything the Library has on your family. The library staff does not
have time to answer involved research questions on family history. A local
researcher must be hired for that purpose.
Information on
the hours and days the Library is open is available by telephone (757 221-INFO)
or on the Library's web page (http://www.swem.wm.edu/).
There is a web page for “Genealogical Research at Swem Library” (www.swem.wm.edu/Resources/subject/VaGenealogy/index.html).
It is located under Subject and Subject Guides.
This is a good beginning. I will add more as I think of them. If
you know of other email me and let me know.
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