Washington County, Virginia Genealogy

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Parent County
1776--Washington County was created 7 October 1776 from Fincastle County. Fincastle County was formed from Botetourt County in 1772, and was abolished in 1777. See Montgomery County.County seat: Abingdon

Neighboring Counties

 * Grayson
 * Johnson County, Tennessee
 * Russell
 * Scott
 * Smyth
 * Sullivan County, Tennessee

Census
1890 Union Veterans


 * Turner, Ronald Ray. Virginia's Union Veterans: Eleventh Census of the United States 1890. Available online, courtesy: Prince William County Virginia website. [Includes residents of this county.]

Family Histories

 * [Colley] Boardman, Elizabeth Joye Mabe. Thomas Colley Family: Russell County, Virginia; Washington County, Virginia; Dickenson County, Virginia; Buchanan County, Virginia; Smyth County, Virginia. [Palm Coast, Florida]: J. Boardman, 2001. Available at FHL; digital version at BYU Family History Archives.

Local Histories

 * Publications of the Historical Society of Washington County, Virginia [Nos. 1-18]. Abingdon, Virginia, 1964. Reviewed in The Virginia Genealogist, Vol. 8, No. 4 (Oct.-Dec. 1964):185. Review available at New England Ancestors ($).
 * Summers, Lewis Preston. History of Southwest Virginia, 1746-1786, Washington County, 1777-1870. J.L.Hill Print Co., 1903. Available at FHL; digital versions at Ancestry ($) and Google Books (full-view). Following the 1966 reprint, this book was reviewed in The Virginia Genealogist, Vol. 11, No. 2 (Apr.-Jun. 1967):84. Review available at New England Ancestors ($).

Military
French and Indian War


 * Bockstruck, Lloyd DeWitt. Virginia's Colonial Soldiers. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1988. Available at FHL. [Identifies some Washington County veterans; see place name index.]

Revolutionary War


 * Kegley, Mary B. Revolutionary War Pension Applications of Southwest Virginia Soldiers. n.p.: M.B. Kegley, 1997. Available at FHL. [Includes Washington County pensioners.]

Newspapers
Indexed images of the Virginia Gazette(1736-1780) are available online through the Colonial Williamsburgwebsite. In addition, Professor Tom Costa and The Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia have created a database of all runaway advertisements for slaves, indentured servants, transported convicts, and ship deserters listed in this source and other Virginia newspapers (1736-1803), see: The Geography of Slavery in Virginia. These newspapers are valuable resources for all regions of Virginia.

Research Guides

 * "A Guide to the Counties of Virginia: Washington County," The Virginia Genealogist, Vol. 24, No. 1 (Jan.-Mar. 1980):58-60. Available at New England Ancestors ($).

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.


 * "Tithables in Washington County, Virginia, in 1782," Publications (The Historical Society of Washington County, Virginia). Series 2, No. 7 (Winter-Spring 1968-1969), No. 8 (Jul. 1970) and No. 9 (Jul. 1971). Available at FHL.
 * Fothergill, Augusta B. and John Mark Naugle. Virginia Tax Payers, 1782-87, Other Than Those Published by the United States Census Bureau. 1940; reprint, Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1978. Available at FHL. [1782 personal property tax list of Washington County.]
 * Schreiner-Yantis, Netti and Florene Speakman Love. The 1787 Census of Virginia: An Accounting of the Name of Every White Male Tithable Over 21 Years, the Number of White Males Between 16 &amp; 21 Years, the Number of Slaves over 16 &amp; Those Under 16 Years, Together with a Listing of Their Horses, Cattle &amp; Carriages, and Also the Names of All Persons to Whom Ordinary Licenses and Physician's Licenses Were Issued. 3 vols. Springfield, Va.: Genealogical Books in Print, 1987. Available at FHL. [The source of this publication is the 1787 personal property tax list. Washington County is included in Vol. 2.]
 * Images of the 1788 and 1797 Personal Property Tax Lists of Washington County, Virginia are available to browse online, courtesy: Binns Genealogy.
 * 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. Washington County is included in Vol. 5.]

Vital Records
Birth


 * Fridley, Beth, comp. Washington County, Virginia Births, 1889-96 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2000. Available at Ancestry ($).

Marriage


 * Barbe, Waverly. "Washington County, Virginia, Mc Marriages, 1801-1820," The Virginia Genealogist, Vol. 20, No. 2 (Apr.-Jun. 1976):130-132. Available at New England Ancestors ($).

Death

Beth Fridley has published abstracts of the following Washington County death records online at Ancestry:


 * Washington County, Virginia Deaths, 1853-85 [database on-line]. Available at Ancestry ($). 
 * Washington County, Virginia Deaths, 1886-96 [database on-line]. Available at Ancestry ($).

Websites

 * USGenWeb project. May have maps, name indexes, history or other information for this county. Select the state, then the county.
 * Family History Library Catalog