Lee County, Virginia Genealogy

United States   Virginia    Lee County

Southwest Virginia county.

County Courthouse
Lee County Courthouse P.O. Box 326 Main Street Jonesville, VA 24263-0326


 * Clerk Circuit Court has bird and death records
 * marriage records from 1830
 * divorce records from 1832
 * probate records from 1800
 * Court &amp; Land Records from 1793

Parent County
1792--Lee County was created 25 October 1792 from Russell County. County seat: Jonesville

Record Loss

 * Lost censuses: 1800, 1810, 1890

Neighboring Counties

 * Bell County, Kentucky
 * Claiborne County, Tennessee
 * Hancock County, Tennessee
 * Harlan County, Kentucky
 * Scott
 * Wise

African American

 * Kegley, Mary B. Free People of Colour: Free Negroes, Indians, Portuguese and Freed Slaves. Wytheville, Virginia: Kegley Books, 2003. Available at ; digital version at BYU Family History Archives. [Includes information from Lee County.]

Census
For tips on accessing census records online, see Virginia Census.

1790 - See Parent County.

1800 - Lost, but a subsitute is available, see Taxation.

1810 - Lost, but a subsitute is available, see Taxation.

1830


 * Simmons, Don. Lee County, Virginia, Census of 1830. [Virginia?]: D. Simmons, 1976. Available at ; digital version at World Vital Records ($).

1840


 * Douthat, James L. 1840 Mountain Empire of Virginia Census. Signal Mountain, Tenn.: Mountain Press, 2001. 975.5 X2d 1840. Free online surname index and purchase details at Mountain Press website. [Includes Lee County.]

1890 Union Veterans' Census


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

Genealogy
More than a dozen genealogies have been published about Lee County families. To view a list, visit Lee County, Virginia Genealogy.

Local Histories

 * Historical Facts of Lee County, Virginia. Pennington Gap, Va.: Pennington High School, 1930. Available at ; digital version at Ancestry ($).

Revolutionary War

 * Kegley, Mary B. Revolutionary War Pension Applications of Southwest Virginia Soldiers. n.p.: M.B. Kegley, 1997. Available at . [Includes Lee County pensioners.]
 * 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: 973 X2pc 1840. [See Virginia, Western District, Lee County on page 135.]

War of 1812

 * List of Pensioners on the Roll, January 1, 1883; Giving the Name of Each Pensioner, the Cause for Why Pensioned, the Post-Office Address, the Rate of Pension Per Month, and the Date of Original Allowance... Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1883. 973 M2Lp v. 5; digital versions at Google Books and Internet Archive. [See Vol. 5, Virginia, Lee County, p. 87. Identifies War of 1812 veterans living in this county in 1883.]

Civil War
Civil War service men from Lee County served in various regiments. Men often joined a company (within a regiment) that originated in their county. Listed below are companies or regiments that were formed from men of Lee County.

- 25th Regiment, Virginia Cavalry (Confederate)

- 1st Regiment, Virginia Artillery (Confederate)

- 20th Regiment, Virginia Infantry (Confederate) - Not sure that this regiment is from Lee County

- 32nd Regiment, Virginia Infantry (Confederate) - Not sure that this regiment is from Lee County

- 48th Regiment, Virginia Infantry (Confederate)

- 50th Regiment, Virginia Infantry (Confederate)

- 64th Regiment, Virginia Infantry (Confederate)

- Lee Home Guard

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.

Periodicals
Watauga Association of Genealogists Bulletin

Genealogical articles with abstracts of Lee County, Virginia records have been published in the Watauga Association of Genealogists Bulletin (39+ vols., 1972-present), the journal of the Watauga Association of Genealogists. The organization has posted tables of contents for most volumes on their website. Back issues are available for purchase.The Family History Library has a complete collection, including Margaret W. Hougland and Betty Jane Hylton's Bulletin Subject Index: The First Thirty Years, 1972-2001 (Johnson City, Tenn.: Watauga Association of Genealogists, 2002).

Private Papers

 * Bell, Annie W.B. Southwest Virginia Historical Records: Family Bible Records of the People Living in Lee County, Virginia Adjoining Historical Cumberland Gap, Tennessee One Year Before the Civil War Began, During which the Families were Separated, Many Never to Meet Again, as Taken from the 1860 Census of the United States ... 195-?..

Taxation
How can Virginia tax lists help me?

The original Lee County Personal Property Tax Lists are held at the Library of Virginia. The Family History Library has acquired microfilms the Library of Virginia made for the years 1795-1850:.

The original Lee County Land Tax Lists are held at the Library of Virginia. The Family History Library does not have microfilm copies of these records, but has acquired abstracts for select years published in genealogical journals.

Lee County is also fortunate in being part of the First Tax District whose detailed 1815 records survive in the Kincade Private Papers. The Family History Library has acquired a microfilm copies of these records from the Library of Virginia: and. These records were also abstracted, published, and indexed by Kegley (see below).


 * [1799] Indexed images of the 1799 Personal Property Tax List of Lee County, Virginia are available online, courtesy: Binns Genealogy.
 * [1799] Indexed images of the 1799 Land Tax List of Lee County, Virginia is available online, courtesy: Binns Genealogy.
 * [1806] Kincaid, Bathsheba W. "Lee County, Virginia 1806 Land Tax Book," The Mountain Empire Genealogical Quarterly, Vol. 5, No. 2 (Summer 1986):129-130; Vol. 5, No. 3 (Fall 1986):195-198..
 * [1807] Kincaid, Bathsheba W. "Lee County, Virginia 1807 Land Tax Book," The Mountain Empire Genealogical Quarterly, Vol. 5, No. 3 (Fall 1986):198-199; Vol. 5, No. 4 (Winter 1986):263-267..
 * [1809] Kincaid, Bathsheba W. "Lee County, Virginia 1809 Land Tax Book," The Mountain Empire Genealogical Quarterly, Vol. 6, No. 1 (Spring 1987):33-34; Vol. 6, No. 2 (Summer 1987):120-123; Vol. 6, No. 3 (Fall 1987):191-192..
 * [1810] Schreiner-Yates, Netti. A Supplement to the 1810 Census of Virginia: Tax Lists of the Counties for which the Census is Missing. Springfield, Va.: Genealogical Books in Print, 1971. . [The source for this publication is the 1810 personal property tax list. Lee County is included because the 1810 Census for that county has been destroyed.]
 * [1810] Kincaid, Bathsheba W. "Lee County, Virginia 1810 Land Tax Book," The Mountain Empire Genealogical Quarterly, Vol. 6, No. 2 (Summer 1987):120-123; Vol. 6, No. 3 (Fall 1987):192-193; Vol. 6, No. 4 (Winter 1987):276-277; Vol. 7, No. 1 (Spring 1988):61-62; Vol. 7, No. 3 (Fall 1988):190-192. ff.
 * [1812] Kincaid, Bathsheba W. "Lee County, Virginia 1812 Land Tax Book," The Mountain Empire Genealogical Quarterly, Vol. 8, No. 3 (Fall 1989):169-175..
 * [1815] Kincaid, Bathsheba. "Lee County, Virginia Tax Book for 1815," The Mountain Empire Genealogical Quarterly, Vol. 4, No. 3 (Fall 1985):175-176..
 * [1815] Ward, Roger D. 1815 Directory of Virginia Landowners (and Gazetteer). 6 vols. Athens, Georgia: Iberian Pub. Co., 1997-2000. . [The source for this publication is the 1815 land tax. Lee 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: and . [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.]

Websites

 * Lee Co., VAGenWeb. Part of the USGenWeb Project. Maps, name indexes, history.
 * RootsWeb Mailing List: SW_VA-L (Topic: Southwest Virginia)
 * RootsWeb Mailing List: SW_VA-L (Topic: Southwest Virginia)