Monongalia County, West Virginia Genealogy

United States &gt; West Virginia &gt; Monongalia County

Parent County
1776--Monongalia County was created 7 October 1776 from the District of West Augusta. County seat: Morgantown

Neighboring Counties

 * Fayette County, Pennsylvania
 * Greene County, Pennsylvania
 * Marion
 * Preston
 * Taylor
 * Wetzel

Family Histories

 * [Brand] Brand, Franklin Marion. The Brand Family of Monongalia County, Virginia (Now West Virginia). Morgantown, W. Va.: F.M. Brand, 1922. Available at FHL; digital version at BYU Family History Archives.
 * [Digman] Poling, Newton L. and Virginia S. Poling. The Digman Family of West Virginia: A Personal Glimpse. Mt. Airy, Maryland: ElderSong Publications, 1997. Available at FHL.
 * [Hoskins] Hoskins, Robert J., Ella N. Hoskins, and Donna Hoskins Higley. Trails West: A History of the Hoskins Family. Syracuse, Utah: D.H. Higley, 1993. Available at FHL.
 * [Jones] "Gale-Shinn-Stanton-Jones," The American Genealogist, Vol.31 (1955):54-56. Available at New England Ancestors.
 * [Keller] See Digman.
 * [Kelley] Duncil, Charles W. William Kelley - Elwood Smith Genealogy, Browns Chapel, Monongalia County, W. Va.: The Story of the Two Families and How They Intermarried and Held Reunions for Over 50 Years. MSS., Butler, Pa.; also available on microfilm at FHL.
 * [Shinn] See Jones.
 * [Smith] See Kelley.
 * [Tibbs] Pugh, S. Earline Tibbs. Tibbs, Bennett, Crull, Etc., Families of Monogalia Co., VA, Scioto Co., OH, Etc.: Their Ancestors, Descendants, and Allied Families; Ashley, Bennett, Bourne, Crist, Crull, Dalrymple, Dodge, Fairchild, Feirl, Foye, Frum, Glover, Hannum, Hess, Jacobs, Jenkins, Jones, Kinker, Low, McDowell, Mollisee, Munn, Olin, Pugh, Rockwell, Samson, Slattery, Slocum, Snider, Southworth, Stockham, Stover, Stygler, Thomas, Tibbs, Utt, Valentine, Williams and Many Others; Also Data on the Tebbs/Tibbs Family of VA and Their Descendants. 2000. Available at FHL; digital version at BYU Family History Archives.
 * [Utt] Mitchell, Patricia D. Ancestors and Descendants of Morgan Orlando Utt and Olive Rebecca (Protzman) Utt, Monongalia County, West Virginia. Dallas, Texas: P.D. Mitchell, 1996. Available at FHL; digital version at BYU Family History Archives.
 * [Williams] See Tibbs.

Local Histories

 * Wiley, Samuel T. History of Monongalia County, West Virginia, from Its First Settlements to the Present Time with Numerous Biographical and Family Sketches. Kingwood, W. Va.: Preston Publishing Co., 1883. Available at FHL.

Military
French and Indian War


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

Newspapers

 * Gilchrist, Joy Gregoire. Abstracts of Early Monongalia County, (West) Virginia Newspapers, 1816 - 1842. Coshocton, Ohio: Squires Family Researchers, n.d. Available at FHL.

Research Guides

 * "A Guide to the Counties of Virginia: Monongalia County," The Virginia Genealogist, Vol. 18, No. 4 (Oct.-Dec. 1974):293-295. Available at FHL; digital version 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.


 * Monongalia County, [West] Virginia Personal Property Tax Lists, 1783-1850. Original records, Library of Virginia, Richmond, Va.; also available on microfilm at FHL.
 * 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. [Sources for this publication are the 1787 and 1788 personal property tax lists, and partial 1786 personal property tax list (names of those who do not appear on 1787 and 1788 lists were abstracted). Monongalia County is included in Vol. 2.]
 * Monongalia County, [West] Virginia Land Tax, 1788-1806, MSS., W. Guy Tetrick Collection, Clarksburg, W. Va., prepared by the Historical Records Survey; also available on microfilm at FHL.
 * Indexed images of the 1790 Personal Property Tax List of Monongalia County, Virginia (now West Virginia) are available online at Binns Genealogy.
 * Monongalia County, [West] Virginia Land Tax, 1796-1865. Original records, Monongalia County Courthouse, Morgantown, W. Va.; also available on microfilm at FHL.
 * Monongalia County, [West] Virginia Land Tax, 1799-1806, MSS., West Virginia University Library, Morgantown, W. Va., prepared by the Historical Records Survey; also available on microfilm at FHL.
 * Images of the 1800 Personal Property Tax List of Monongalia County, Virginia (now West Virginia) are available to browse online at 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. Monongalia County is included in Vol. 6.]

Vital Records
Death


 * Trickett, Lorna. Deaths, Monongalia County: 1853-1899. MSS., W. Guy Tetrick Collection, Clarksburg, W. Va., prepared by the Historical Records Survey; also available on microfilm at FHL.
 * Trickett, Lorna. Deaths, Monongalia County, West Virginia: 1853-1899. MSS., West Virginia University Library, Morgantown, W. Va., prepared by the Historical Records Survey; also available on microfilm at FHL.

Web Sites

 * Family History Library Catalog