Wythe County, Virginia Genealogy

United States &gt; Virginia &gt; Wythe County

Parent County
1789--Wythe County was created 1 December 1789 from Montgomery County. County seat: Wytheville

Neighboring Counties

 * Bland
 * Carroll
 * Grayson
 * Pulaski
 * Smyth

Census
1840


 * Douthat, James L. 1840 Mountain Empire of Virginia Census. Signal Mountain, Tennessee: Mountain Press, 2001. Available at FHL. [Includes this county.]

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
Bibliography


 * [Andruss] Kokojan, Merriam and Barbara A. Irwin. Andruss Family. Irving, Texas: M. Kokojan, 1985. Available at FHL.
 * [Braun] See Brown.
 * [Brown] Balis, Leila Smith. My Braun/Brown Family of Lebanon Co., Pa.; Wythe Co., Va.; Clinton Co., Oh. [Murray, Utah: L.S. Balis, 1999]. Available at FHL.
 * [Bunts] Tickle, James Robert. The Tickle, Bunts, Bond and Jennings Families of Southwest Virginia: A Family History with Some North Carolina Roots. Morristown, Tennessee: J.R. Tickle, c1996. Available at FHL.
 * [Calhoun] Johnson, Ellen R. History of the Colquhoun/Calhoun Families and Their Ancestral Homeland. Bowie, Maryland: Heritage Books, 1993. Available at FHL.
 * [Chaney] Lewis, Olan R. and Dorothy Anne Vedder Jenner. The Hezekiah Chaney Sr. Family. Lakeport, Ca.: O.R. Lewis, 1988. Available at FHL.
 * [Colquhoun] See Calhoun.
 * [Cowan] Rehm, Martha Weidlich. The Cowan Family History: Descendants of Samuel Thomas Cowan &amp; Margaret Maria Halsey of Wytheville, Wythe County, Virginia 1816-1208. Fort Collins, Colorado: M.W. Rehm, 2008. Available at FHL.
 * [Creager] See Phillippe and Shupe.
 * [Crockett] Trimble, David B. Crockett and Graham of Southwest Virginia. Austin, Texas: D.B. Trimble, 1992. Available at FHL.
 * [Gose] See Litz.
 * [Graham] See Crockett.
 * [Kelly] Stallard, Christine and Conley D. Stallard. The Ferguson Connection: Russell County, Virginia, 1775-1994 : A Family History. [Ormond Beach, Florida]: C. Stallard, c1995. Available at FHL.
 * [Litz] Lower, Samuel S. Peter Gose Litz (1802-1880), Burke's Garden, Tazewell, Virginia, and Wife, Sarah Gose (1805-1860): Ancestors, Descendants and History. Plain City, Utah: S.S. Lower, 1996. Available at FHL.
 * [McGavock] Aiken, Leona Taylor. The Descendants of James McGavock, Sr. and the McGavock Mansions, Fort Chiswell, Va and Carnton, Franklin, Tenn. Rogersville, Tenn.: L.T. Aiken, 1986. Available at FHL.
 * [Phillippe] Smith, Donald R. Phillippe Ancestry. Hopkinsville, Kentucky: Donald R. Smith, 2005. Available at FHL.
 * [Rutherford] Jobe, Sybil Shipley. My Shipley Family: A Genealogical History of the Christopher Shipley Family. Neosho, Missouri: S.S. Jobe, 1992. Available at FHL.
 * [Scott] Thomas, LaVerne and Kay Lee Wrage Gunn. The Scotts of Southwest Virginia: Descendants of the James &amp; Rachel Scott of Wythe/Smyth County and Ten Other Early Lines. 3 vols. Marion, Virginia: Dean Tucker Printing, c1999. Available at FHL; digital versions of Vol. 1, Vol. 2, and Vol. 3, courtesy: BYU Family History Archives.
 * [Shupe] Hansen, Holly T., Charlene Strickland, and Samuel S. Lower. Andrew Jackson Shupe, 1815-1877 and Mary Elizabeth Creager, 1820-1900. Croydon, Utah: H.T. Hansen, 1995. Available at FHL.
 * [Thompson] Cragun, Brian J. Andrew Thompson of Wythe and Bland Counties, Virginia and Descendants. Rochester, Minnesota: B.J. Cragun, 1995. Available at FHL.
 * [Totten] Dillon, Anna Mary Totten. The John Totten Family of Early Tazewell County, Virginia (McDowell County, W. Va.) and Descendants 1774 - 1986. Columbus, Ohio: A.M.T. Dillon, 1986. Available at FHL.
 * [Totten] Dillon, Anna Mary Totten. Errara and Additional Totten Families of The John Totten Family of Early Tazewell Co., Va. (McDowell Co., W. Va.) and Descendants, 1774-1986. [Columbus, Ohio]: A.M.T. Dillon, [1990?]. Available at FHL.
 * [Ward] Anderson, Judy B. Virginia Connections. 5 vols. Roy, Utah: J. B. Anderson, 1990. Available at FHL.
 * [Ward] Anderson, Judy B. Virginia Connections: A Genealogical History of the Thompson and Ward Families of Southwest Virginia. Roy, Utah: J.B. Anderson, 2005. Available at FHL.

Land
Grants and Patents


 * Hudgins. 976 patents dated 1750-1883 in what is now Wythe County, Virginia placed on a map. DeedMapper. 2009. [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

 * Kegley, Mary B. and F.B. Kegley. Early Adventurers on the Western Waters. 5 vols. Orange, Va.: Green Publishers, 1980, 1982 and Wytheville, Va.: Kegley Books, 1995, 1998. Available at FHL.

Military
Revolutionary War


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

Civil War


 * Douthat, James L. Wythe County, VA, Civil War Records, 1861-1865. 1986. Available at FHL.

Newspapers
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 the Virginia Gazette and other Virginia newspapers (1736-1803), see: The Geography of Slavery in Virginia.

Research Guides

 * "A Guide to the Counties of Virginia: Wythe County," The Virginia Genealogist, Vol. 25, No. 1 (Jan.-Mar. 1981):49-51. 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.


 * [1770-1773] Kegley, Mary B. New River Tithables, 1770-1773. Wytheville, Virginia: M.B. Kegley, 1972. Available at FHL.
 * [1793] Images of the 1793 Personal Property Tax List of Wythe County, Virginia are available to browse online, courtesy: Binns Genealogy.
 * [1793-1800] Murphy, Malita Warden and James L. Douthat. Wythe County, Va. Tax List, 1793-1800. Signal Mountain, Tenn.: Mountain Press, 1985. Available at FHL.
 * [1800] Indexed images of the 1800 Personal Property Tax List of Wythe County, Virginia are available online, courtesy: Binns Genealogy.
 * [1815] 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. Wythe County is included in Vol. 5.]
 * [1815] Kegley, Mary B. Southwest Virginia Tax Assessments, 1815: Grayson, Lee, Scott, Russell, Washington, and Wythe Counties. Wytheville, Va.: Kegley Books, 1991. Original edition and 1992 supplement available at FHL. [The source for this publication is a private collection of 1815 tax assessment tickets for the First District of Virginia. The tickets includes landowners' names, number of acres or lots, number of buildings along with descriptions, and number of slaves. N.B. These are not the 1815 land tax books.]

Vital Records
Divorce


 * Kegley, Mary B. Divorces of Wythe County, Virginia, 1816-1886. Wytheville, Va.: Kegley Books, 2004. Available at FHL.

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