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

Boundary Changes
Monongalia County has been called "mother of counties" because many originated as part of it. The first set off was Harrison County, in 1784. See a table of West Virginia County formation histories, or an interactive map of Monongalia County boundary changes.

Record Loss
The Monongalia County Court Clerk's outbuilding, containing deeds, tax assessment rolls, Court records and marriage records, was burned in 1796. Some records are retrievable elsewhere (see below).

African American

 * Heinegg, Paul. "Monongalia County Personal Property Tax List, 1783-1821," Free African Americans.com. [Heinegg abstracted free blacks listed in these records.]

Census
1820 - Exists, but the National Archives microfilm copy of Monongalia County, Virginia omits page 51a. The missing names have been published in The Virginia Genealogist:


 * Petty, Gerald M. "Virginia 1820 Federal Census: Names Not on the Microfilm Copy," The Virginia Genealogist 18, no 2 (April-June 1974):136-139.


 * The list is also available online at the Shenandoah County, Virginia GenWeb Project.

1890 Veterans' Census


 * Skidmore, E.J. and J.M. Ware. 1890 West Virginia Veteran Schedule: North Central Region: Including the Counties of Taylor, Preston, Marion, Doddridge, Harrison, Monongalia and Barbour. Kerens, W. Va.: EJ Pub, 2007. Available at.

Court
County Court

Court records were destroyed by a fire in the County Clerk's outbuilding in 1796, but some subsequent cases into the 1820s concerned events arising before that time.


 * Monongalia County Court Minute and Order Books 1796 to 1905 (with gaps), including a one-volume every-name index, are available on microfilm at the FHL.
 * A card file index to Monongalia County District, Superior and County Court case file papers in the West Virginia Collection, West Virginia University Library, Morgantown, titled is available on 58 microfilms at the Family History Library. It includes name and subject indexes.
 * Chalkley, Lyman. Chronicles of the Scotch-Irish Settlement in Virginia Extracted from the Original Court Records of Augusta County, 1745-1800. Rosslyn, Va.: The Commonwealth Printing Co. for Mary S. Lockwood, c1912-13, reprinted 1965. 3 Vols. Available at FHL. OCR scans of text, with linked every-name indexes, available on internet at Rootsweb. [Extracts of Augusta County Court records include cases heard in the Court of Appeals in Staunton, including some from Monongalia County. See critique of errors and omissions by Daphne Gentry, of the Library of Virginia.]
 * Zinn, Melba Pender. Monongalia County, (West) Virginia, Records of the District, Superior and County Courts. Bowie, Maryland: Heritage Books, c1990-2002. 12 Vols. Available at FHL. [Abstracts of case file papers in the West Virginia Collection, West Virginia University Library, Morgantown. Surname index in each volume.]

Genealogy
It is anticipated that this bibliography will eventually identify all known family histories published about residents of this county. Use this list to:


 * Locate publications about direct ancestors
 * Find the most updated accounts of an ancestor's family
 * Identify publications, to quote Elizabeth Shown Mills, about an ancestor's "FAN Club" [Friends, Associates, and Neighbors]

Land
Monongalia County Deeds were destroyed in a fire in the County Clerk's outbuilding in 1796. Many of the destroyed instruments were re-recorded in the now extant County Deeds (Old Series) and in the Monongalia County District Court Deeds. The latter series included mainly transactions conducted by out-of-County and out-of-State residents. As in most such records, many of the post-1796 deeds recited a chain of title.

Titles to Monongalia County lands were initially conveyed by the Commonwealth of Virginia mainly in right of settlement, although some speculators bought land warrants (rights to survey and claim grants to specific tracts) and resold them. No Monongalia County lands were granted pursuant to Revolutionary War Bounty Land Warrants. The Land Office's copies of all land grants issued by VA up to 1862 are available on the internet at the Library of Virginia (go to "Land Office Patents and Grants/Northern Neck Grants and Surveys" link to search). The County Clerk retains transcripts of the original land surveys, as well as original Land Entry Books (available on microfilm at FHL). The titles in right of settlement were allocated by a Commission for Adjusting Claims to Unpatented Lands 1773-1785; its minutes are retained by the County Clerk, and available on microfilm at FHL and in the West Virginia State Archives, Charleston. Extracts of the proceedings were published by Earl L. Core, The Monongalia Story: a Bicentennial History (see Local History section of this page), mainly in Vol. 2.


 * Toothman, Rick. Monongalia County, (West) Virginia, Deed Book Records 1784-1810 (Old Series Volumes 1-4). Bowie, Md.: Heritage Books, 1994. Available at FHL

Local Histories

 * Core, Earl L. The Monongalia story: a Bicentennial History. Parsons, W. Va.: McClain Printing Company, 1974-1984. 5 Vols. Available at FHL.
 * Rush, West &amp; Company (Philadelphia, Pa.). Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Monongalia, Marion and Taylor Counties, West Virginia: Comprising About Five Hundred Sketches of the Prominent and Representative Citizens of These Counties: Illustrated. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Rush, West &amp; Company, 1895. Available at.
 * Shively, Norman B. and Samuel T. Wiley. Index to Samuel T. Wiley's History of Monongalia County, West Virginia (1883). Morgantown, W. Va.: Monongalia County Bicentennial Committee, 1976. Available at.
 * 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.

French and Indian War, 1755-1763

 * Bockstruck, Lloyd DeWitt. Virginia's Colonial Soldiers. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1988. Available at . [Some French and Indian War veterans later lived in Monongalia County, but no one served at this time while living here. Some men from eastern VA are identified as having served "at Monongalia" in 1756, but Gen. Braddock's expedition into PA is meant. Two men are mentioned in the book as living in Monongalia County in 1779; see place name index.]

Revolutionary War

 * 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, Eastern Monongalia County and Western Monongalia County on page 135.]
 * Jeanne Robey Felldin and Charlotte Magee Tucker. Index to The Soldiery of West Virginia by Virgil A. Lewis; Tomball, Texas: Genealogical Publications, 1976. Available at FHL.
 * Ross B. Johnston, comp. West Virginians in the American Revolution; Baltimore, Md.: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1997. Available at FHL; digital version at Ancestry ($). [Alphabetized extracts from Revolutionary War Pension Application declarations, including residents of Monongalia County.]
 * Virgil A. Lewis. The Soldiery of West Virginia in the French and Indian War; Lord Dunmore's War; the Revolution; the Later Indian Wars; the Whiskey Insurrection; the Second War with England; the War with Mexico, and Addenda Relating to West Virginians in the Civil War. Charleston, WV: State of West Virginia, 1911. Reprinted by Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1967-1998. Available at FHL; digital version at Ancestry ($). [Includes a Monongalia County muster roll, lists of Revolutionary War pensioners copied from Report to Congress (1835) and summaries of legislation about recruitment for State and Continental troops and regarding Congressional pensions.]


 * Donna Parker. Every name index to the soldiery of West Virginia French and Indiana War ... War with Mexico ... and addenda ... Civil War, by Virgil A. Lewis; Burbank, California: Southern California Genealogical Society, 1993. Available at FHL
 * Rejected or Suspended Applications for Revolutionary War Pensions. Washington, D.C., 1852. Reprinted by Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1969, and 1991. Reprints include "an Added Index to States." 973 M24ur; digital version at Ancestry ($). [Includes veterans from this county; Virginia section begins on page 238.]

Naturalization

 * Williams, Mary K. Monongalia County, West Virginia, Naturalization Records, 1776-1906. [Morgantown, W. Va.: M.K. Williams], 1986. Available at.

Newspapers

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

Private Papers

 * [Bayles] Bayles Family Records. Bible records, copies of diaries, letters, and newspaper notices of Lucas County, Ohio / Daughters of the American Revolution. Fort Industry Chapter (Toledo, Ohio) -- p. 8-10. Also available at.
 * [Rice] Family Bible of Philemon L. Rice and Serena Elizabeth Laidley [Records ca. 1799-1927]. Original records, in possession of Mrs. Charles Everly of Fairmount, West Virginia (1959); also available on microfilm at.

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 ; digital version at New England Ancestors ($).

Taxation
How can Virginia tax lists help me?


 * [1783-1850] Monongalia County, [West] Virginia Personal Property Tax Lists, 1783-1850. Original records, Library of Virginia, Richmond, Va.; also available on microfilm at.
 * [1783-1821] Heinegg, Paul. "Monongalia County Personal Property Tax List, 1783-1821," Free African Americans.com. [Heinegg abstracted free blacks listed in these records.]
 * [1786] Core, Earl L. The Monongalia Story: A Bicentennial History. Parsons, W. Va.: McClain Printing Company, 1976. (1786 tithe list begins on p. 142)
 * [1786-1788]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 . [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.]
 * [1788-1806]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.
 * [1790] Indexed images of the 1790 Personal Property Tax List of Monongalia County, Virginia (now West Virginia) are available online at Binns Genealogy.
 * [1796-1865] Monongalia County, [West] Virginia Land Tax, 1796-1865. Original records, Monongalia County Courthouse, Morgantown, W. Va.; also available on microfilm at.
 * [1799-1806] 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.
 * [1800] Images of the 1800 Personal Property Tax List of Monongalia County, Virginia (now West Virginia) are available to browse online at Binns Genealogy.
 * [1815] Ward, Roger D. 1815 Directory of Virginia Landowners (and Gazetteer). 6 vols. Athens, Georgia: Iberian Pub. Co., 1997-2000. Available at . [The source for this publication is the 1815 land tax. Monongalia County is included in Vol. 6.]

Vital Records
Birth


 * Carter, Eleanor Yost, Kathleen Mahaffey Bogdan, and Marion County Genealogy Club (Fairmont, W. Va.). Monongalia County Births. [1853-1876] 3 vols. Fairmont, W. Va.: Marion County Genealogy Club, 1991. Available at.

Death


 * Daughters of the American Revolution. Elizabeth Lundington Hagans Chapter (Texas). Death Records, Monongalia County, West Virginia, 1856-1863. Tomball, Texas: Genealogical Publications, 1976. Available at.
 * 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.
 * 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.

Family History Centers

 * Introduction to LDS Family History Centers
 * Morgantown West Virginia Family History Center