Virginia Biography

United States   Virginia    Biography

For information about Virginia's earliest colonists, McCartney's work is a great place to start:


 * McCartney, Martha W. Virginia Immigrants and Adventurers 1607-1635: A Biographical Dictionary. Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Pub. Co., 2007. 975.5 D36m; purchase at Genealogical.com.

An excellent list of early Virginians is in:


 * True, Ransom B., ed. Biographical Dictionary of Early Virginia, 1607-1660. Richmond, Virginia: Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities, 1982. (On 22 Family History Library fiche .) Includes more than 100,000 entries with references to 30,000 people who are mentioned in Virginia wills, deeds , court orders, histories, and Virginia Company records. A supplemental Guide (Family History Library 1) contains an explanation of the dictionary and a listing of the sources with their codes.

You can also request information from the:

Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities 204 West Franklin Street Richmond, Virginia 23220-5012 Phone: 804-648-1889 Fax: 804-775-0802 http://www.apva.org/

An index to biographical sketches in several hundred local histories and genealogies is:


 * Wardell, P.G. Timesaving Aid to Virginia-West Virginia Ancestors: A Genealogical Index of Surnames from Published Sources. Two Volumes. Athens, Georgia: Iberian Publishing, 1985. (Family History Library book )

Other important biographical sources are:


 * Brock, Robert Alonzo. Virginia and Virginians. Richmond and Toledo: H. H. Hardesty, 1888. (Family History Library film .) An index is on Family History Library fiche . Lists five to ten prominent citizens from each county with early governors and generals.
 * Foote, William Henry. Sketches of Virginia: Historical and Biographical. Two Volumes. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: William S. Martien, 1850-56. (Family History Library book ; Volume 1 on film ; Volume 2 on film .) Presbyterian history, ministers, and families. Volume one is indexed in An Index to Sketches of Virginia: Historical and Biographicalby William Henry Foot (Richmond, Virginia: The Library, Union Theological Seminary in Virginia, 1966; Family History Library book
 * Tyler, Lyon Gardiner. Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography. Five Volumes. New York, NY: Lewis Historical Publication, 1915. 3 vols. ; digital versions of Vols. 1-2 at Ancestry ($); Vol. 1 at Google Books and Internet Archive; Vol. 2 at Internet Archive and Google Books; Vol. 3 at Google Books and Internet Archive; Vol. 4 at Google Books and Internet Archive; Vol. 5 at Internet Archive. Includes multi-generation family histories.

The Family History Library also has:


 * French, S. Bassett. Biographical Sketches [of Virginia]. Richmond, Virginia: Virginia State Library, 1949? (Family History Library films ) Contains brief handwritten sketches of persons born from the 1700s to 1800s, sometimes with birth and death dates.