The following is a list of our General Reference Guides:
Click here>to go to individual booklets page.
Hamrick's LOOPY LEXICON
[Llex]Temporarily out of print
CHART ON THE FORMATION OF VIRGINIA COUNTIES
designed by John Vogt. 11"x17." This reference chart provides a complete guide to the
organization of Virginia's county government structure since the colony's founding. For each
new county, the chart shows all of the contributing parent counties in an easy-to-read fashion. The
chart also includes the regions of West Virginia and Kentucky up to the time when they
became separate states. (An enlarged version of this formation chart is currently in use by the Virginia
State Library, Archives Division, in its Genealogical Research Room.)
ATLAS OF COUNTY BOUNDARY CHANGES IN VIRGINIA, 1634-1895
by Michael F. Doran. 1987, viii, 61 pages, 11"x17". Maps covering the growth of
Virginia counties and their subdivisions for each decade beginning in 1634 and ending with
the
last county formed in West Virginia in 1895. Each map is accompanied with a discussion of
the
changes and a table listing each new county and its parent county(ies). With the Atlas a
researcher can locate exactly what county an ancestor lived in during the colonial days by
checking the maps for the appropriate time period. It is possible that the absence of any
records on an individual might not necessarily denote his moving, but the shifting of the county
boundary and recording of information in a different county.
DELORME ATLASES & GAZETTEERS
paperback, 11" x 15", 63 maps, 80 pages, full color. These atlases will be an invaluable
resource for genealogical researchers. Each 11" x 15" chart is extremely detailed and maps back roads
(paved & unpaved), along with trails, forests, mountains, and all lakes, ponds, rivers, and
streams. Together, the maps in the set cover the entire state in the same fashion as the 1:250,000 series
of geological survey maps issued by the U. S. government. A place name gazetteer identifies
even the tiniest village and country crossroad. Most importantly, the atlas identifies many of the
smallest watercourses which researchers can use to locate property and family sites. Similar
atlases/gazetteers are available for other states:
1790 U.S. Census
INDEX TO SERIES I OF AMERICAN LOYALISTS CLAIMS
compiled by Clifford S. Dwyer 1989, iv, 147 pages. Following the
American Revolution, the
British government established commissions to receive the claims of American Loyalists who
had
suffered losses of real and personal property as a result of the war. The original records of
Gt.
Britain [Series I, AO 12, Exchequer & Audit Dept, American Loyalist claims, 1776-1831]
include
thirty microfilm reels of valuable family and business information of the claimants. In most
cases,
the state of residence of the claimant(s) is noted. All of these films may be borrowed on
interlibrary loan from the Library of Congress by citing proper volume and reel number. This
is
an extremely valuable addition for research in the late eighteenth century.
THE REPORTS OF...RANDOLPH AND...BARRADALL ON DECISIONS OF THE GENERAL COURT OF VIRGINIA, 1728-1741
by R. T. Barton. 1909 (reprint 1996) 2 volumes, 370, 394 pages, with the addition of a new index by
Roger Ward. These two volumes constitute vols. 1 and 2 of the classic "Virginia Colonial
Decisions" which has been a landmark reference work for mid-eighteenth century Virginia since
its first printing in 1909. The addition of a comprehensive index further enhances the work. Sold
as a set only.
VIRGINIA POSTMASTERS AND POST OFFICES, 1789-1832
compiled by Edith F. Axelson. 248 pages, index. 1991. Working with record
group 28 in the National Archives, the compiler has located the counties for the many post offices
listed and has presented a marvelous panoply of the early postal system in Virginia. This volume
has immense genealogical value for the Virginia researcher: it gives the names of over three
thousand men and women who were postmasters and over one thousand towns and taverns,
creeks and crossroads, streams and stores, all of which boasted a post office for at least a short
period of time.
A GUIDE TO EPISCOPAL CHURCH RECORDS IN VIRGINIA
Edith F. Axelson. 1988, vi, 136 pages. The disenfranchisement of the Church
of England following the American Revolution, combined with the sale of church properties in the
early nineteenth century and constantly changing parish and county boundaries, have all served to
fragment the ecclesiastical records of the successor Protestant Episcopal denomination. A few of
the older holdings and records of extinct parishes are in library repositories; others are held in
diocesan collections and by the individual churches. Their baptism, confirmation, marriage, and
burial records are of immense value to the genealogical researcher. This volume is the result of
the author's exhaustive search to identify and describe existing church and parish records, and to
correspond with the individual churches on how to obtain information from them. A Guide to
Episcopal Records in Virginia is a major reference tool for every genealogical researcher
who deals with the Church of England in the colonial period and the successor Protestant
Episcopal Church.
BURNED COUNTY DATA, 1809-1848 (AS FOUND IN THE VIRGINIA CONTESTED ELECTION FILES)
by Benjamin B. Weisiger,III, 1986. 100 pages, index. The author has examined a previously unexplored source of
information for valuable genealogical information regarding "burned counties." The bulk of the
data consists of depositions regarding qualifications of the voter (e.g., land ownership, age, length
of residence in the county, etc.) as well as data gleaned from a number of attached wills, deeds,
and even a Bible register. The following counties and elections are included in the current
volume: Hanover (1825); Buckingham (1809, 1840, 1848); Charles City (1821, 1838);
Gloucester (1827); New Kent (1838); James City (1845); and Caroline (1843).
SOME WILLS FROM THE BURNED COUNTIES OF VIRGINIA
compiled by William Lindsay Hopkins. 6x9 format. Wills from
circa 1670-1830. Brunswick, Buckingham, Caroline, Charles City, Dinwiddie, Elizabeth City,
Glouster, Hanover, Henrico, James City, King George, King and Queen, King William, Mathews,
Nansemond, New Kent, Prince George, Prince William, Stafford, and Warwick Counties, Va.
A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF ABSTRACTS AND COMPILATIONS OF VIRGINIA CITY AND COUNTY RECORDS
compiled by Robert Vernon. 1993, vi, 107 pages. This book contains a list of published abstracts of Virginia city and county
records that are available at the Virginia State Library, in Richmond, Virginia. Although most of
the books listed are abstracts of primary sources, that is, county wills, deeds, court orders,
censuses, etc., the list does contain a few family genealogies. Please note, however, that no
attempt was made to collect compiled genealogies.
MARRIAGE RECORDS IN THE VIRGINIA STATE LIBRARY: A RESEARCHER'S GUIDE
(2d EDITION-1988) John Vogt and T. William Kethley, Jr. 2d edition 1988 [iv], 246 [2] pages, map. This book indexes and annotates more than
1,500 marriage records collections on microfilm, photostat, and in printed form currently in the
Virginia State Library at Richmond. It also notes how to secure the assistance of archival staff in
answering specific questions on your genealogy, and how to borrow original microfilm copies by
interlibrary loan. A new format has been adopted for the second edition which includes a listing
of all original manuscript and photostat materials held by the archives, as well as the microfilm
and published holdings which were in the first edition. At least two hundred titles acquired by the
library in the past five years have been added to the listing, as well as a summary of published
materials for the West Virginia counties. Finally, a full and thorough treatment of each
county's origins and boundary changes has been included.
WILL AND ESTATE RECORDS IN THE VIRGINIA STATE LIBRARY: A RESEARCHER'S GUIDE
John Vogt and T. William Kethley, Jr. 1987, [iv], 186 pages, introduction, map. The authors begin by summarizing the
intricacies of estate law as it developed in Virginia during the colonial period, and they illustrate
the types of valuable family data which may be derived from such records. The volume includes a
listing of 2,136 microfilmed will, estate, and related records. In addition, several hundred
published works which contain source materials are included. [Note: West Virginia materials are
not included in this volume].
TIMESAVING AID TO VIRGINIA-WEST VIRGINIA ANCESTORS
(A Genealogical Index of Surnames from Published Sources)P.G. Wardell,
1990, iv, 429 pp. The author addresses the problem confronting every genealogist--how to
conduct original research in the archives and still find the time to examine the important published
literature, especially older works with inadequate indices. The author has carefully chosen books
which have major genealogical significance, but carry no indices. From these volumes he has
extracted surname entries and compiled them in a listing with the appropriate references to the
original books which may be borrowed through library interlibrary loan. The guide to the
reference book listed here is currently used in notecard form as a major reference source by the
Lloyd House of the Alexandria, Virginia library system. As noted in the title, it includes
references also to West Virginia counties and families. Each entry has been carefully checked and
all references
to a particular surname have been integrated into a single entry. This volume indexes a total of
802 volumes of Virginia family histories and research sources. It is a labor which required years
of careful, patient, page-by-page, examination of these books. This book will prove to be a
classic research tool for Virginia and West Virginia genealogical investigation.
To order by phone, call 1-706-546-6740 M-F 8a-6p EST.
To order by phone, call 1-706-546-6740 M-F 8a-6p EST.
1815 DIRECTORY OF VIRGINIA LANDOWNERS &
GAZETTEER, vol. 1 Central Region
(Includes the counties of Albemarle, Amelia, Amherst, Buckingham, Charles City, Chesterfield, Cumberland,
Dinwiddie, Fluvanna, Goochland, Hanover, Henrico, independent city of Petersburg,
independent city of Richmond, Louisa, Nelson, New Kent, Nottoway, Powhatan, and
Prince George.) abstracted by Roger G. Ward. 1997, vi, 239 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:
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.)
[Vdl1] $30.00
1815 DIRECTORY OF VIRGINIA LANDOWNERS &
GAZETTEER Vol. 2-South Central Region (Includes the
counties of Bedford, Brunswick, Campbell, Charlotte,
Franklin, Greensville, Halifax, Henry, Lunenburg,
Mecklenburg, Patrick, Pittsylvania, Prince Edward,
Southampton, and Sussex. abstracted by Roger G. Ward.
1997, vi, 234 pages, indices, maps. This work is
the second volume in a continuing project to record all
1815 landowners found in each county, as well as the
accompanying description of the location of the property.
[Vdl2] $30.00
1815 DIRECTORY OF VIRGINIA LANDOWNERS &
GAZETTEER Vol. 3-Eastern Region. Includes the counties of Accomack, Caroline,
Elizabeth City, Essex, Gloucester, Isle of Wight, James City, King and Queen, King George, King William, Lancaster,
Mathews, Middlesex, Nansemond, Norfolk, Northampton, Northumberland, Princess Anne, Richmond, Surry,
Warwick, Westmoreland, York, and the independent city of Norfolk.
abstracted by Roger G. Ward. 1998, viii, 209 pages, indices, maps. The third volume in a continuing project
to record all 1815 landowners found in each county, as well as the accompanying description of the location
of the property.
[Vdl3] $30.00
1815 DIRECTORY OF VIRGINIA LANDOWNERS &
GAZETTEER Vol. 4-Northern Region. Includes the counties of
Culpeper, Virginia, Fairfax, Fauquier, Frederick, Independent City of Alexandria, Independent City of Fredericksburg, Independent City of Winchester, Loudoun, Madison, Orange, Prince William, Rockingham, Shenandoah, Spotsylvania, Stafford
abstracted by Roger G. Ward. 1999, viii, 220 pages, indices, maps.
[Vdl4] $30.00
1815 DIRECTORY OF VIRGINIA LANDOWNERS & GAZETTEER Vol. 5-Western Region.
Includes counties of: Augusta, Bath, Botetourt, Giles, Grayson, Greenbrier ([W.]Va.), Independent City of Staunton, Lee, Monroe, Montgomery, Pendleton, Rockbridge, Russell, Scott, Tazewell, Washington, Wythe
abstracted by Roger G. Ward. 2000, viii, 240 pages, indices, maps.
[Vdl5] $30.00
1815 DIRECTORY OF VIRGINIA LANDOWNERS &
GAZETTEER Vol. 6-Northwest Region. Includes the counties of
Berkeley, Brooke, Cabell, Hampshire, Hardy, Harrison, Jefferson, Kanawha, Mason, Monongalia, Ohio, Pendleton, Randolph, Tyler, and Wood
abstracted by Roger G. Ward. 2000, x, 232 pages, indices, maps.
[Vdl6] $30.00
The Directory of Virginia Landowners is also available as county by county booklets
Charles and Virginia Hamrick, 2001. 54,707 Modern American Surnames, each used by 30 or more families in the United States today. Hereditary, or family, names present the most difficult element of language for Researchers to decipher when working with handwritten records or oral histories. This is primarily because human names are constructed of linguistic elements (or parts) which often are quite ancient... whose meanings are no longer familiar to us. Nor do they share contextual affinity with other elements of the text in which they appear. For that reason, a Lexicon of modern American Surnames arranged in a reverse alphabetical order will be a useful, if not essential, reference work for anyone attempting to read and transcribe handwritten public records or correctly interpret recorded Oral Histories. The usefulness of this Lexicon stems from the fact that names contain a limited variety of endings which, by long usage, have become quite familiar to us. These name endings are often the first part we recognize when confronted with a new and difficult name. This is true, although the first part may be quite strange to us. A listing of the possible choices of 'beginnings' with which these 'endings' may be 'connected' will aid greatly in deciphering the true name. But a single sample will exemplify this better than all the words in a dictionary. Take for example a document in which you can clearly see that a strange name ends in -----RICK; a look at page 111 shows that RICK is the first name in column 4 and the last name ending in RICK is WYRICK at the beginning of column 3 on page 112. That's more than 100 different choices. However after closer examination you determine the next letter is an "M" making you puzzle ---MRICK. Your choices have now narrowed to three choices HAMRICK,EMRICK and HENRICK. You may now concentrate on determining whether the first letter is an "H" or an "E" (here the length of the word should dictate the choice "H") and you are left with discriminating between "AM" an "EN." So, have at it and expect near perfect results.
"An independent researcher whose specialized area is 18th century American business records he is expert in reading and transcribing 18th century handwriting. His diligence and precision in working with such rare items result in providing a new level of accessibility for researchers in all appropriate fields. I only wish our collection included more material of this kind."
--Joyce A. McMullin, Branch Manager Lloyd House Library of Virginia History and Genealogy
[Ctva]$3.00
[Vaat]$27.95
FORERUNNERS: A HISTORY OR GENEALOGY OF THE STRICKLER FAMILIES, THEIR KITH AND KIN Strickler, Harry M., 1925. Reprinted by New Papyrus Publishing Co., 1998.
Harry Strickler's classic work on the Stricklers of the Shenandoah Valley is back in print. Included in this early work is material on not only on
the Stricklers, but also collaterial lines among the following families. Kauffmans, Stovers, Burners, Ruffners, Beavers, Shavers, Brumbachs, Zirkles,
Blossers, Groves, Brubakers, Neffs, Rothgebs, and many other early families of Shenandoah, Rockingham, Frederick, Augusta and Page Counties, Virginia.
[Fore] $30.00
OWEN FAMILY PROFILES: A Compilation of Historic Records by Billy Wayne Owen, 2010. 523 pp.
A wide ranging study of those persons with the surname "Owen". The author has included not only genealogical connections, but historical interpretations and decriptive narrative to give life to the subjects discussed.
[Owen] $44.95
THE BROWN CONNECTION: ROOTS ALONG THE GREAT KANAWHA AND THE JAMES RIVERS by Helen Brown Nichols, 2007. 207 pp.
Included in this work is material on not only on the Browns, but also collaterial lines among the following families- Slaughter, Donnally, Roberts, Landcraft, Draper, Bowyer, and Nichols.
[Brwn] $25.00
[Alc1] $14.00
[Vcdc] 2 volumes, paper $59.95
[Post] $22.50
[Gerv] $14.00
[Burn] $15.00
[Swbc] $30.00
[Acre] $22.00
[Gtmr] $22.50
[Vwer] $20.00
[Tavc] $36.00
TIMESAVING AID TO VIRGINIA-WEST VIRGINIA ANCESTORS vol. 5
Patrick G. Wardell, 1998, 8"x11" format, 174 pp. A supplement to the
combined edition of volumes 1 - 4, described above. There are about 16,000 family names listed. The
importance of this volume is that it covers the index for much hidden information on birth, death and marriage
extracted from the 2,670 reels of microfilm of the Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty Land records at the
National Archives.
[Tav5] $24.95
RETURN TO TOP OF PAGE
Click here for mail-order instructions. 
Click here for mail-order instructions.
Copyright © 2012 New Papyrus Publishing Company