Stafford County Virginia History and Genealogy

Home Reference Census Records Military African-American Other States New Titles E-BOOKS FREE SHIPPING IN USA

Iberian Publishing Company's On-Line Catalog:
Stafford County Virginia

Stafford County was formed in 1664 from the upper portion of Westmoreland County. As initially created, it included all of the land from the Potomac River westward to the dividing ridge of the watershed between the Potomac and Rappahannock rivers. Stafford's lands north of Chapawamisck Creek were cut off to create part of Prince William County in 1730. In 1776 the boundaries of Stafford and King George counties were greaty altered so that the dividing line ran from the Potomac River to the Rappahannock River rather than along the watershed ridge line. The lower portion of Stafford became part of King George and the upper half of King George was transferred to Stafford's administration. Many of Stafford's county court records were vandalized by Federal occupation troops during the Civil War.

For a better understanding of county boundary changes, see our new section Virginia in Maps
Iberian also has hundreds of titles in e book (PDF) format!! Click here for a complete online catalog of available titles

STAFFORD CO., VA 1810 CENSUS transcribed, with an index by John Vogt. 2010, 10 1/2 x 8 1/2, x, 25 pages, illustrations, maps, index. This is the first surviving census for Stafford, since both the 1790 and 1800 censuses have been lost. A complete index is included for easy access. Stafford was one of the earliest counties in the area known as the Northern Neck, and it was settled under the auspices of Lord Fairfax pursuant to his grant. The county's location along the Potomac and Rappahannock Rivers gave it added importance as a commercial center, and the town of Falmouth was an important shipping center for the region.
[STAF10] $9.95 (printed version)

The above title is also available as a digital e-book in PDF format:
[ESTAF10] $7.00 (electronic version)

THE 47th VIRGINIA INFANTRY by Homer D. Musselman. 2nd edition, 2010. Paperback, 6x9, x, 228 pp, illustrations, maps, color photos. This definitive study of the 47th Va. Infantry was first published in 1991, and today copies of the original volume are on the used book market for more than two hundred dollars. The author has continued his research into the unit's history and has significantly expanded the original, especially in the unit roster. Like its predecessor, this work is destined to become the definitive study on this element of Civil War history.
[47VA] $26.95

The above title is also available as a digital e-book in PDF format:

[EVA47] $15.00 (electronic version)

STAFFORD COUNTY, VIRGINIA TITHABLES: Quit Rents, Personal Property Taxes and related lists and petitions, 1723-1790 John Vogt & T. William Kethley, Jr. With an introduction by Michael Burgess. "The records in these books are certain to provide genealogical breakthroughs for countless researchers interested in colonial Stafford County....The records in this set are of such a variety and importance that they bear noting here..." [review, The Virginia Genealogical Society Newsletter, Vol. XVI, No. 2, Mar.-Apr. 1990, p.4]. 1990, 2v., xi, 612 pages, index, figures, maps. Stafford County was formed in 1664 from the upper portion of Westmoreland County. As initially created, it included all of the land from the Potomac River westward to the dividing ridge of the Potomac Rappahannock watershed. Stafford's lands north of Chapawamsick Creek were cut off in 1730 to form part of Prince William County. In 1776 a major boundary alteration between Stafford and King George so altered the boundary that the ridgeline no longer served as the dividing line. The lower portion of Stafford became part of King George and the upper half of King George was transferred to Stafford's jurisdiction. A total of 1,917 different surnames are recorded here, representing several thousand individual families. More than fifteen thousand entries are included in the sixty-four pages of triple columned index.
[Staf] 2 vol. set $37.00 (printed version)

The above title is also available as a digital e-book in PDF format:
To view a digital copy (pdf) of the index to this book, visit Index-Staf
(Close the pdf file with the left arrow to return to Iberian's catalog) [ESTAF] $25.00 (electronic version)

Stafford Co. 1815 Directory of Landowners by Roger G. Ward. 2005. 15 pages, map, 5 1/2X8 1/2.
For a full description of the 1815 LAND DIRECTORY Records and a listing of available counties, see combined volume below

[Vd96] $6.00

The above title is also available as a digital e-book in PDF format:

[EVd96] $4.50 (electronic version)

1815 DIRECTORY OF VIRGINIA LANDOWNERS & GAZETTEER, vol. 4 Northern Region (Includes the counties and cities of Alexandria (i.e., present-day Arlington), Culpeper, Fairfax, Fauquier, Frederick, Loudoun, Madison, Orange, Prince William, Rockingham, Shenandoah, Spotsylvania, Stafford, and the independent cities of Alexandria, Fredericksburg, and Winchester ) abstracted by Roger G. Ward. 1997, vi, 220 pages, indices, maps.
In 1782 the General Assembly of Virginia enacted new tax laws which created within each county an enumeration of land and certain personal property. These early land tax laws required a tax commissioner in each district of a county to record a list of the names of persons owning land or town lots, the quantity of land owned and its value, and the amount of tax owed. By 1813, a brief geographic description (usually citing an adjacent stream, road, or other landmark) was required; in 1814, the distance and direction from the courthouse for each parcel was also added to the tax rolls.
The present work is an alphabetical listing of all 1815 landowners found in each county, as well as the accompanying description of the location of the said property. We have not included the number of acres, taxes assessed, or any transactions between landowners which may have been noted on the tax rolls; also, in many cases the geographic location was provided as "adjacent to John Smith", etc. and, while useful many times to a genealogist, was considered to be beyond the objectives of this project. The reader is encouraged to consider the information here-in as an "outline" of early landowners in Virginia rather than a "text" due to the year-to-year variation in information provided to the clerk (or recorded by the clerk), omissions, lack of "identifiers" to determine if "same name" was also "same person" within a district or across districts, marginal quality/clarity (in a few cases) of the microfilm copy, and, not least, errors on the part of either the original clerks or the current author while transcribing.
Some of the approaches to utilizing the 1815 landowner information include:
observe distinct clusters of the same surname within a county in order to clarify the common surnames such as "Smith", "Anderson", etc;
identify non-resident landowners and their county (or state) of residence (these people often being former residents of the current county);
determine neighbors with different surnames (often being relatives);
use the 1815 information as a "bridge" from the 18th and 19th century deed/will books to the 17th and 18th century land grants/patents in the county;
evaluate the 1810 to 1840 census information which generally grouped neighbors;
substitute this information for missing deed/will books in the "burned" counties; and, clarify/enhance vague deed/will information in the counties with more complete records.
FORMAT OF PRESENTATION: Each entry is listed as: Surname, name, personal identifiers (if any); location/place-name of land; miles/direction from the 1815 courthouse. If multiple owners are listed for a property, the listing is duplicated under each of the owner's surnames (i.e "Smith and Brown" is also listed as "Brown, --see Smith"); when multiple owners share a common surname, the property is only listed once. When a landowner had land at more than one location/place-name, the miles/direction listing for each parcel is in the same sequence as the location listing (i.e. James RV, Slate CK; 12N, 5SW.). In the few cases where a landowner had "many" parcels, the miles/direction notation is attached to the location listing (i.e. Sandy RV- 5NE, Willow CK-7S, etc.)

[Vdl4] $32.00 (paper version)

The above title is also available as a digital e-book in PDF format:

[EVDL-4] $20.00 (electronic version)

Stafford Co. Revolutionary Public Claims transcribed by Janice L. Abercrombie and Richard Slatten.. 2005. 45 pages, 5 1/2X8 1/2.
For a full description of the Virginia Revolutionary Public Claims and a listing of available counties, see: Revolutionary "Publick" Claims series

To view a digital copy (pdf) of the index to this book, visit Index-Stafford
(Close the pdf file with the left arrow to return to Iberian's catalog)

[Pc64] $7.25 (printed version)

The above title is also available as a digital e-book in PDF format:

[EPc64] $4.50 (electronic version)

NORTHERN NECK (LAND) WARRANTS & SURVEYS, 1710-1780: DUNMORE, SHENANDOAH, CULPEPER, PRINCE WILLIAM, FAUQUIER & STAFFORD COUNTIES by Peggy Shomo Joyner. 1986, xx, 197 pp., map, illust. Published as the third volume in a series of Northern Neck Warrants & Surveys, this collection has become a standard reference work for researchers in the period of colonial Virginia history for this area.
Contents: Dunmore (pp. 1-26); Shenandoah (pp. 27-40); Culpeper (pp.41-88); Prince William (pp.89-135); Fauquier (pp.137-144); Stafford (pp.145-174); George Washington surveys (pp.175-176); index.

The Northern Neck Proprietary, also called the Fairfax Proprietary, or Fairfax Grant, was a land grant first created by the exiled English King Charles II in 1649 and encompassing all the lands bounded by the Potomac and Rappahannock Rivers in colonial Virginia. This constituted up to 5,200,000 acres of Virginia's Northern Neck and a vast area northwest of it.

The grant became actual in 1660 when Charles was restored to the English throne. By 1719, these lands had been inherited by Thomas Fairfax, 6th Lord Fairfax of Cameron (1693-1781). By that time the question of the boundaries of the designated lands had also become highly contentious. It was decided in 1746 that a line between the sources of the North Branch of the Potomac and the Rappahannock River (the "Fairfax Line") would constitute the western limit of Lord Fairfax's lands. The early 17th century decade was witnessing a wave of pioneer settlement throughout the region.

To obtain land a person purchased a warrant from the proprietor's agent specifying the precise location of the desired land. The warrant was then given to a surveyor, who surveyed the land. The plat, warrant, and any related papers were returned to the proprietor's office, and if the title was clear, a grant was recorded and then issued. At any point after the warrant was purchased the land could be assigned (sold) to another person, and years could elapse between the purchase of the warrant and the issuance of a grant.

The volume is arranged first by county, then alphabetic by grantee. Please note: The index provided at the end of the volume contains only those persons whose reference occurs outside the alphabetic listing in the volume. It is NOT a complete index of names or places.

[NNW3] $27.00 (printed version)

The above title is also available as a digital e-book in PDF format:

[ENNW3] $20.00 (electronic version)

SOME WILLS FROM THE BURNED COUNTIES OF VIRGINIA compiled by William Lindsay Hopkins. 6x9 format. Wills from circa 1670-1830 for the counties of Brunswick, Buckingham, Caroline, Charles City, Dinwiddie, Elizabeth City, Gloucester, Hanover, Henrico, James City, King George, King and Queen, King William, Mathews, Nansemond, New Kent, Prince George, Prince William, Stafford, and Warwick Counties, Va.

To view a digital copy of the index to this book, visit Index-Swbc
(Use your back arrow to return to Iberian's catalog)

[Swbc] $32.00 (printed version)

The above title is also available as a digital e-book in PDF format:

[ESwbc] $20.00 (electronic version)

For more records pertaining to STAFFORD COUNTY, VIRGINIA see also:

Westmoreland, Prince William and King George Counties
MEN IN GRAY INTERMENTS series
Guide to Virginia Militia Units in the War of 1812
Chart on the Formation of Virginia Counties
Atlas of County Boundary Changes in Virginia, 1634-1895
Index to the 1810 Virginia Census

Please see our HELP PAGE for mail-order instructions, wholesaler policies and other contact information.

|| Virginia/W.Va. || General Reference || Military Records ||
|| Other States || E-Books || New Titles || Home Page || E-Books ||

Copyright 2026 Iberian Publishing Company

Iberian Publishing Company's On-Line Catalog: Stafford County Virginia

Iberian Publishing Company's On-Line Catalog:
Stafford County Virginia