Monroe County, West Virginia

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United States    West Virginia    Monroe County

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	West Virginia Online Records

Monroe County, West Virginia
Map
Location in the state of West Virginia
Location of West Virginia in the U.S.
Facts
Founded	1799
County Seat	Union
Courthouse

County Courthouse

Monroe County Courthouse
Main Street
Union, WV 24983
Phone:304-772-3096

County Clerk has birth and death records from 1853
Marriage and land records from 1799 and probate Records^[1]

History

Monroe County, West Virginia

Parent County

1799--Monroe County was created 14 January 1799 from Greenbrier County.
County seat: Union ^[1]

Boundary Changes

See an interactive map of Monroe County boundary changes.

Record Loss

Places / Localities

Populated Places

Neighboring Counties

• Alleghany County, Virginia
• Craig County, Virginia
• Giles County, Virginia
• Greenbrier
• Mercer
• Summers

Resources

Research Guides

• "A Guide to the Counties of Virginia: Monroe County," The Virginia Genealogist, Vol. 18, No. 4 (Oct.-Dec. 1974):295-298. Available at FHL; digital version at New England Ancestors ($).

Cemeteries

 Find a Grave Monroe County, West Virginia
Tombstone Transcription Monroe county, West Virginia
Political Graveyard.com - Monroe County, West Virginia

Census

For tips on accessing Monroe County, West Virginia census records online, see: West Virginia Census.

1830 Census Federal Census Index 

Church

Baptist

Early Baptist churches (with years constituted):

1. Indian Creek (1792)^[2]

Monroe County fell within the bounds of the Greenbrier Association.

Court

DNA

DNA has been collected from men claiming descent from the following Kanawha County, (West) Virginia residents. Attempts have not been made to verify the lineages of those tested.

• [Fletcher] Descendant of William Fletcher, b. England, resident of Kanawha and Monroe Counties, Virginia. Y-DNA 12 Marker Test, FTDNA. Genetic signature available online (labelled William Fletcher of Accomac County, Virginia/James Fletcher of Brunswick County, Virginia), courtesy: The Fletcher DNA Project.

Family Histories

It is anticipated that this bibliography will eventually identify all known family histories published about residents of this county. Use this list to:

• Locate publications about direct ancestors
• Find the most updated accounts of an ancestor's family
• Identify publications, to quote Elizabeth Shown Mills, about an ancestor's "FAN Club" [Friends, Associates, and Neighbors]

General

• Blankenship, Gayle King. Virginia Families of Louisa, Hanover and Monroe Counties. Poquoson, Va.: G.K. Blankenship, 1991. FHL 975.5 D2bg

Bibliography

• [Bean] Beane, Fannie B. William Bean of Monroe County and His Descendants. St. Albans, W.Va., 1988.
• [Long] Beane, Fannie B. William Bean of Monroe County and His Descendants. St. Albans, W.Va., 1988.
• [Long] Buchanan, Paul C. "Long Families in Monroe Co. (Then) Virginia," Mountain Empire Genealogical Quarterly, Vol. 8. Pages 146-153.
• [Long] Buchanan, Paul C. and Susie M. Owens. "Henry Long and Some Descendants of Colonial Virginia," The Virginia Genealogist, Vol. 38, No. 2 (Apr.-Jun. 1994):115-126; Vol. 38, No. 3 (Jul.-Sep. 1994):190-200; Vol. 38, No. 4 (Oct.-Dec. 1994):263-273; Vol. 39, No. 1 (Jan.-Mar. 1995):27-31. Digital version at American Ancestors ($). FHL Book 975.5 B2vg v. 38 (1994)-v. 39 (1995).
• [Mann] Malott, Eva, Ada McPhilliamy, and Dick Pence. Digging Our Roots: The Pence Kids. Baltimore, Md.: Gateway Press, 1977. FHL Book 929.273 P372a.
• [Riggins] Burgess, James A. Burgess, Mullins, Browning, Brown and Allied Families. Parsons, W.Va.: McClain Printing Company, 1978. FHL Film 1035668 Item 10; digital version at Family History Archives - free.
• [Tiffany] McIlhany, H.M. Some Virginia Families. Staunton, Va.: Stoneburner & Prufer, 1903, pp. 239-242. 1962 reprint: FHL US/CAN Book 975.5 D2m 1962; digital version at Ancestry ($).

Land and Property

• Hudgins. 335 patents dated 1774-1858 in what is now Monroe County, West Virginia placed on a map. DeedMapper. [Names of those who received land patents, dates, land descriptions, and references may be viewed free of charge (click "Index" next to the county listing); however, in order to view the maps, it is necessary to purchase Direct Line Software's DeedMapper product.]

Local Histories

The standard local history of Monroe County, West Virginia is Oren F. Morton's A History of Monroe County (Ruebush-Elkins Co., Dayton, VA, 1916). It is available as a reprint, and is also up at: Google Books.

Maps

Map of 1850 Virginia and West Virginia
Monroe County, West Virginia Map

Military

Revolutionary War

• A Census of Pensioners for Revolutionary or Military Services: With their Names, Ages, and Places of Residence, as Returned by the Marshalls of the Several Judicial Districts, Under the Act for Taking the Sixth Census]. 1841. Digital versions at U.S. Census Bureau and Google Books et. al. 1967 reprint: FHL Collection 973 X2pc 1840. [See Virginia, Western District, Monroe County on page 135.]
• Rejected or Suspended Applications for Revolutionary War Pensions. Washington, D.C., 1852. Reprinted by Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1969, and 1991. Reprints include "an Added Index to States." FHL Collection 973 M24ur; digital version at Ancestry ($). [Includes veterans from this county; Virginia section begins on page 238.]

War of 1812

Monroe County men served in the 75th Regiment.^[3]

Turk, David Scott,  The memorialists : an antebellum history of Alleghany, Craig and Monroe counties of West Virginia, 1812-60 (Bowie, Maryland, Heritage Books, c1997) page 168 FHL Book 975.5 H2

Civil War

Regiments. Service men in Monroe County, West Virginia served in various regiments. Men often joined a company (within a regiment) that originated in their county. Listed below are companies that were specifically formed in Monroe County, West Virginia:

- 8th Regiment, Virginia Cavalry (Confederate). Company G (Mountain Rangers).^[4]

- 22nd Regiment, Virginia Infantry (1st Kanawha Regiment). Company G (Rocky Point Grays).^[5]

- 26th Battalion, Virginia Infantry (Edgar's) (Confederate). Company A (Red Sulphur Yankee Hunters) and Company B.^[6]

- 27th Regiment, Virginia Infantry (Confederate) . Company D (Monroe Guards).^[7]

- 30th Battalion, Virginia Sharpshooters (Clarke's) (Confederate). Company C.^[8]

Records and histories are available, including:

• West Virginia, Civil War Service Records of Union Soldiers, 1861-1865

World War II

Monroe County, West Virginia World War II Casualities Army and Air Force

Naturalization

West Virginia, Naturalization Records, 1814-1991

Newspapers

Probate

Monroe County, West Virginia Will Books 1799 - 1969

• West Virginia Will Books

Taxation

At first glance, researchers might conclude that Virginia tax lists contain very little family history data, though one soon learns that valuable genealogical conclusions can be drawn from these records, nicknamed "annual censuses," such as: relationships, approximate years of birth, socio-economic status, identification of neighbors, the ability to distinguish between persons of the same name, evidence of land inheritance, years of migration, and years of death.

Virginia began enumerating residents' payments of personal property and land taxes in 1782. These two types of taxation were recorded in separate registers. Personal property tax lists include more names than land tax lists, because they caught more of the population. The Family History Library has an excellent microfilm collection of personal property tax lists from 1782 (or the year the county was organized) well into the late nineteenth century for most counties, but only scattered land tax lists. Microfilm collections at The Library of Virginia include land tax lists for all counties and independent cities for the years 1782 through 1978, as well as personal property tax lists for the years 1782 through 1930 (and every fifth year thereafter). Taxes were not collected in 1808. 

Some tax records are available online or in print, though published abstracts often omit useful details found only in the original sources. Statewide indexes can help genealogists identify specific counties where surnames occurred in the past, providing starting points for research.^[9][10]

• Ward, Roger D. 1815 Directory of Virginia Landowners (and Gazetteer). 6 vols. Athens, Georgia: Iberian Pub. Co., 1997-2000. Available at FHL. [The source for this publication is the 1815 land tax. Monroe County is included in Vol. 5.]
• 1799 Monro County (West Virginia) Personal Proper Tax List

Vital Records

West Virginia Vital Records - Birth - Death - Marriages 

Monroe County, West Virginia Marriage Record Indexes

Societies and Libraries

Monroe County Historical Society
P O Box 465
Union, WV 24983

Monroe CountyPublic Library

Family History Centers

• Introduction to LDS Family History Centers

Web Sites

• Family History Library Catalog
• Cyndi's List for West Virginia
• Monroe County, West Virginia Microfilms at the Library of Virginia
• Monroe County, West Virginia Government
• Monroe County, West Virginia Archives and History
• Links to Greenbrier County and Monroe County, West Virginia
• Monroe County, West Virginia Families
• National Register of Historic Places - Monroe County, West Virginia
• Early Virginia WVA Genealogy
• Links to Greenbrier County and Monroe County West Virginia
•  Caperton Society - Monroe County

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References

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} The Handybook for Genealogists: United States of America,10th ed. (Draper, UT:Everton Publishers, 2002).
2. ↑ Robert Baylor Semple and George William Beale, A History of the Rise and Progress of the Baptists in Virginia (1810; reprint, Richmond, Va.: Pitt and Dickinson, 1894), 421. Digital version at Google Books.
3. ↑ Stuart Lee Butler, A Guide to Virginia Militia Units in the War of 1812 (Athens, Ga.: Iberian Pub. Co., 1988), 145. FHL Book 975.5 M2bs.
4. ↑ Jack L. Dickinson, 8th Virginia Cavalry (Lynchburg, Va.: H.E. Howard, 1986). FHL Book 975.5 M2vr v. 25.
5. ↑ Terry D. Lowry, 22nd Virginia Infantry (Lynchburg, Va.: H.E. Howard, 1988). FHL Book 975.5 M2vr v. 44.
6. ↑ Terry Lowry, 26th Battalion Virginia Infantry (Lynchburg, Va.: H.E. Howard, 1991). FHL Book 975.5 M2vr v. 81.
7. ↑ Lowell Reidenbaugh, 27th Virginia Infantry (Lynchburg, Va.: H.E. Howard, 1993). FHL Book 975.5 M2vr v. 90.
8. ↑ Michael West, 30th Battalion Virginia Sharpshooters (Lynchburg, Va.: H.E. Howard, 1995). FHL Book 975.5 M2vr v. 108.
9. ↑ "Using Personal Property Tax Records in the Archives at the Library of Virginia," Library of Virginia, http://www.lva.virginia.gov/public/guides/rn3_persprop.htm.
10. ↑ "Using Land Tax Records in the Archives at the Library of Virginia," Library of Virginia, http://www.lva.virginia.gov/public/guides/rn1_landtax.pdf.