Monroe County, West Virginia

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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

United States    West Virginia    Monroe County

County Courthouse

Monroe County
Main Street
Union, WV 24983
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

Monroe County, West VirginiaCemetery Records

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 

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

• [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

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

Maps of Monroe County, West Virginia

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

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

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

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.^[2][3]

• 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 Wikipedia
• Monroe County, West Virginia Archives and History
• Links to Greenbrier County and Monroe County, West Virginia
• Monroe County, West Virginia Families
• Monroe County, West Virginia Wikipedia
• National Register of Historic Places - Monroe County, West Virginia
• Early Virginia WVA Genealogy
• West Virginia Photos
• Links to Greenbrier County and Monroe County West Virginia
• Bridges in 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. ↑ "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.
3. ↑ "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.