Hardy County, West Virginia Genealogy

United States

West Virginia

Hardy County

Guide to Hardy County, West Virginia ancestry, genealogy and family history, birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, family history, and military records.

West Virginia Online Genealogy Records

County Facts County seat: Moorefield Organized: October 17, 1785 Parent County(s): Hampshire Neighboring Counties Frederick (VA)  • Grant  • Hampshire  • Mineral  • Pendleton  • Rockingham (VA)  • Shenandoah (VA) See County Maps Courthouse Location Map Adoption This page is available for adoption

County Information

Description

The County was named for Samuel Hardy. The County is located in the northeast area of the state.

County Courthouse

Hardy County Courthouse
204 Washington Street
Moorefield, WV 26836
Phone: 304-538-2929
Hardy County Website

County Clerk has birth, marriage, death and burials from 1853, probate and land records from 1786, court records from 1860 and divorce records.

Hardy County, West Virginia Record Dates

Information for this chart was taken from various sources, often containing conflicting dates. This information should be taken as a guide and should be verified by contacting the county and/or the state government agency.

Known Beginning Dates for Major County Records
Birth*	Marriage	Death*	Court	Land	Probate	Census
1853	1853	1853	1786	1786	1786	1870
*Statewide registration for births and deaths began in 1917. General compliance by 1925.

Record Loss

There is no known history of courthouse disasters in this county. Lost censuses: 1790, 1800, 1810

Boundary Changes

1785--Hardy County was created 17 October 1785 from Hampshire County. County seat: Moorefield For animated maps illustrating West Virginia county boundary changes, "Rotating Formation West Virginia County Boundary Maps" (1617-1995) may be viewed for free at the MapofUS.org website.

Populated Places

For a complete list of populated places, including small neighborhoods and suburbs, visit Hometown Locator. The following are the most historically and genealogically relevant populated places in this county:

Towns
Moorefield (county seat)	Wardensville
Unincorporated communities
Arkansas Baker Basore Bass Baughman Settlement Bean Settlement Brake Cunningham Durgon Fisher	Flats Fort Run Inkerman Kessel Lost City Lost River Mathias McCauley McNeill Milam	Needmore Old Fields Perry Peru Rig Rock Oak Rockland Tannery Taylor Walnut Bottom

Resources

Cemeteries

Cemeteries of Hardy County, West Virginia online and in print
Tombstone Transcriptions Online	Findagrave.com WVGenWeb WVGenWeb Archives WVTombstone Project Interment Billion Graves Index at FamilySearch
Tombstone Transcriptions in Print (Often more complete)	Family History Library WorldCat
List of Cemeteries in the County	Findagrave.com Billion Graves FamilySearch Places
See West Virginia Cemeteries for more information

Census Records

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

Historical populations
Census	Pop.	%±
1790	7,336	—
1800	6,627	−9.7%
1810	5,525	−16.6%
1820	5,700	3.2%
1830	6,798	19.3%
1840	7,622	12.1%
1850	9,543	25.2%
1860	9,864	3.4%
1870	5,518	−44.1%
1880	6,794	23.1%
1890	7,567	11.4%
1900	8,449	11.7%
1910	9,163	8.5%
1920	9,601	4.8%
1930	9,816	2.2%
1940	10,813	10.2%
1950	10,032	−7.2%
1960	9,308	−7.2%
1970	8,855	−4.9%
1980	10,030	13.3%
1990	10,977	9.4%
2000	12,669	15.4%
2010	14,025	10.7%
Source: "Wikipedia.org".

• 1790 - Lost, but a substitute is available, see Taxation.
• 1800 - Lost, but a substitute is available, see Taxation.
• 1810 - Lost, but a substitute is available, see Taxation.

Church Records

Baptist
Early Baptist churches (with years constituted):

1. Lunie's Creek (1777)

List of Churches and Church Parishes

• FamilySearch Places
  

Court Records

• Chancery order book, 1873-1880 For these cases the court sat in chancery which meant it acted as a court of equity. Equity law is a body of legal and procedural rules and doctrines which supplement or override common and statute law to protect rights and enforce duties defined or fixed by substantive law. The court usually dealt with cases which did not need a jury, such as divorces or foreclosures. Orders are judgments based on those laws.
• Court proceedings, 1821-1827 Contains pleas and other proceedings brought before the court. Each plea might contain exhibits of documents, such as court orders for administration and inventory of estates, deed and dower acknowledgments, bills of sale, deeds, powers of attorney, appointments of militia officers, etc

Ethnic, Political, and Religious Groups

African Americans

• Heinegg, Paul. "Hardy County Personal Property Tax List, 1786-1819," Free African Americans.com. Heinegg abstracted free blacks listed in these records.

Genealogies

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]

• Cartmell, T. K. Shenandoah Valley Pioneers and Their Descendants: A History of Frederick County, Virginia (Illustrated) from Its Formation in 1738 to 1908, Compiled Mainly from Original Records of Old Frederick County, Now Hampshire, Berkeley, Shenandoah, Jefferson, Hardy, Clarke, Warren, Morgan and Frederick. n.p.: n.p., c1909. Available at FHL US/CAN Book 975.59 H2c 1963; FHL US/CAN Film 1000634 Item 1; digital version at Ancestry ($), FamilySearch Digital Library and World Vital Records ($). [3 copies at FHL.]
• O'Dell, Cecil. Pioneers of Old Frederick County, Virginia. Marceline, Mo.: Walsworth Pub. Co., 1995. FHL Collection. One of the most impressively researched one-place studies in the United States. In a review, Dorman stated "Comprehensive studies such as this appear only rarely. This volume should be in every Virginia genealogical collection."

• Coberly - Arthaud, John Bradley. "Dr. James Stell Coberly 18th Century Migrant from New Jersey to Virginia and Revolutionary Patriot," The Virginia Genealogist, Vol. 26, No. 2 (Apr.-Jun. 1982):112-117; Vol. 26, No. 3 (Jul.-Sep. 1982):183-189. Digital version at American Ancestors ($). FHL Book 975.5 B2vg v. 26 (1982).
• Coberly - Arthaud, John Bradley. "George Coberly (1788-1855) Virginia Migrant to the Midwest," The Virginia Genealogist, Vol. 28, No. 3 (Jul.-Sep. 1984):217-221; Vol. 28, No. 4 (Oct.-Dec. 1984):256-260. Digital version at American Ancestors ($). FHL Book 975.5 B2vg v. 28 (1984).
• Coberly - Arthaud, John Bradley. "The Ancestry of Mary (Poffenberger) (Coberly) Power (1752-27 Oct. 1840)," The Virginia Genealogist, Vol. 35, No. 1 (Jan.-Mar. 1991):39-42. Digital version at American Ancestors ($). FHL Book 975.5 B2vg v. 35 (1991).
• Coberly - Arthaud, John Bradley and Marian (Kortum) Coberly. "The Ancestry of Mary C. Coberly (1820-1875)," The Virginia Genealogist, Vol. 43, No. 4 (Oct.-Dec. 1999):293-296. Digital version at American Ancestors ($). FHL Book 975.5 B2vg.
• Cunningham - Harter, Mary. "James Cunningham of Western Virginia," The Virginia Genealogist, Vol. 29, No. 1 (Jan.-Mar. 1985):9-16. Digital version at American Ancestors ($). FHL Book 975.5 B2vg v. 29 (1985).
• Franklin - Mathys, Mary Sue and Dorsey W. Franklin. "A Mystery Story: The Case of the Origins of John Franklin Sr. (1729-1819) of Burke County, North Carolina," The Virginia Genealogist, Vol. 32, No. 4 (Oct.-Dec. 1988):243-252; Vol. 33, No. 1 (Jan.-Mar. 1989):27-33. Digital version at American Ancestors ($). FHL Book 975.5 B2vg v. 32 (1988)-v. 33 (1989).
• Homan - Arthaud, John Bradley. "The Ancestry of Mary (Poffenberger) (Coberly) Power (1752-27 Oct. 1840)," The Virginia Genealogist, Vol. 35, No. 1 (Jan.-Mar. 1991):39-42. Digital version at American Ancestors ($). FHL Book 975.5 B2vg v. 35 (1991).
• Mathias - Griffiths, George R. The Mathias Family of Hardy County, Virginia and West Virginia, A Pioneer Mountain Family. Chicago, Ill.: Adams Press, 1977. FHL Book 929.273 M426g.
• Newman - Boogher, William F. Gleanings of Virginia History: An Historical and Genealogical Collection, Largely from Original Sources. Washington: n.p., 1903. Available at FHL; digital version at Google Books. Includes a chapter titled "Genealogy of the Newman Family, 1618-1900," see Table of Contents; discusses Newmans of Hardy County.
• Post - Poinsett, Doris Jean Post. Valentin Pfost/Post, 1740-1800, of Hardy County (West) Virginia and Some of His Descendants. Baltimore, Md.: Gateway Press, 1989. Digital version at Family History Archives; FHL Book 929.273 P845p.
• Renick - Renick, E.I. "The Renick Family of Virginia," Publications of the Southern History Association, Vol. 3, No. 3 (Jul. 1899): 221-227. Digitized by Internet Archive - free.
• Rohrbough - Rohrbough, Fred Ware. The Rohrbough Family. 1962.
• Strother - Owen, Thomas McAdory, "William Strother of Virginia and His Descendants," Publications of the Southern History Association, Vol. 2, No. 1 (Apr. 1898):149-173. Digitized by Internet Archive.
• Trader - Dorman, John Frederick. Adventurers of Purse and Person Virginia 1607-1624/5. 3 vols. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 2005. See Volume 2. FHL Book 975.5 H2j v. 2.

Land and Property Records

Land and property records can place an ancestor in a particular location, provide economic information, and reveal family relationships. Land records include: deeds, abstracts and indexes, mortgages, leases, grants and land patents.

See West Virginia Land and Property for additional information about early West Virginia land grants. After land was transferred to private ownership, subsequent transactions were usually recorded at the county courthouse and where records are currently housed.

• Homestead records, 1877-1909
• Land entries, 1843-1861
• List of real estate, 1869-1932. The county recorder existed from 1863 to 1872 and handled many of the legal documents that the clerk of the county court managed before and after this.

Contains lists of real estate being sold for the non-payment of taxes, 1869, 1879-1932, and liens or mechanic liens 1870, 1876-1893.

• Gray, Gertrude E. Virginia Northern Neck Land Grants, 1775-1800. Vol. III. Baltimore, MD, USA: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1993. Available at FHL; digital version at Ancestry ($). Includes Hardy County.

Local Histories

Local histories are available for Hardy County, West Virginia Genealogy. County histories may include biographies, church, school and government history, and military information. For more information about local histories see the wiki page section West Virginia Local Histories.

• The history of Hardy County : 1786-1986
• Cartmell, T. K. Shenandoah Valley Pioneers and Their Descendants: A History of Frederick County, Virginia (Illustrated) from Its Formation in 1738 to 1908, Compiled Mainly from Original Records of Old Frederick County, Now Hampshire, Berkeley, Shenandoah, Jefferson, Hardy, Clarke, Warren, Morgan and Frederick. n.p.: n.p., c1909. Available at FHL US/CAN Book 975.59 H2c 1963; FHL US/CAN Film 1000634 Item 1; digital version at Ancestry ($), FamilySearch Digital Library and World Vital Records ($).

Maps and Gazetteers

Click a neighboring county
for more resources

• FamilySearch Places:Cities and Towns- How to Use FS Places
• Maps of West Virginia (1617-1995)
• Map of 1850 Virginia and West Virginia

Military Records

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: FHL Collection 973 X2pc 1840. See Virginia, Western District, Hardy County on page 134.

War of 1812

Hardy County men served in the 14th Regiment.

Civil War

Regiments. Service men in Hardy served in various regiments. Men often joined a company (within a regiment) that originated in their county. Listed below are companies that were specifically formed in Hardy County:

- 7th Regiment, Virginia Cavalry (Ashby's) (Confederate). Company F (Hampshire Riflemen aka New Creek Riflemen).

- 11th Regiment, Virginia Cavalry. Company B (The Hardy Rangers).

- 18th Regiment, Virginia Cavalry (Confederate). Companies B, E, and H.

- 25th Regiment, Virginia Infantry (Heck's) (Confederate). Company H (Hardy Blues) and Company K (South Branch Riflemen).

- 62nd Regiment, Virginia Mounted Infantry (Confederate). Company B (Hardy Blues).

Records and histories are available, including:

• 1861-1865 West Virginia Civil War Service Records of Union Soldiers, 1861-1865 at FamilySearch — index - How to Use this Collection
• 1861-1865 U.S., Confederate Soldiers Compiled Service Records, 1861-1865 at Ancestry — index (free)
• 1861-1865 U.S., Union Soldiers Compiled Service Records, 1861-1865 at Ancestry — index (free)

Civil War Battle
The following Civil War battle was fought in Hardy County:

• August 7, 1864 - Moorefield, also known as Oldfields

Map showing Civil War battles in West Virginia.

World War II

• 1940-1945 - West Virginia, World War II Draft Registration Cards,1940-1945 at FamilySearch — index and images - How to Use this Collection

Naturalization and Citizenship

• 1814-1991 West Virginia Naturalization Records, 1814-1991 at FamilySearch — index and images - How to Use this Collection
• Naturalization records, 1913-1916 These can be viewed online.

Probate Records

Online Probate Records

• 1724-1978 West Virginia Wills and Probate Records 1724-1978 at Ancestry.com — index and images $
• 1756-1971 West Virginia Will Books 1756-1971 at FamilySearch — index and images - How to Use this Collection

Social Security Records

• 1935-2014 United States Social Security Death Index at FamilySearch - How to use this collection; index. Also at Ancestry, findmypast, Fold3, GenealogyBank, MyHeritage, and Steve Morse. Click here for more information.
• 1936-2007 U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007 at Ancestry ($) — index, click here for more information.

Tax Records

How can Virginia tax lists help me?

• 1786 Fothergill, Augusta B. and John Mark Naugle. Virginia Tax Payers, 1782-87, Other Than Those Published by the United States Census Bureau. 1940; reprint, Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1978. Online at FamilySearch - free; FHL. 1786 personal property tax list of Hardy County.
• 1786 - 1819 Heinegg, Paul. "Hardy County Personal Property Tax List, 1786-1819," Free African Americans.com. Heinegg abstracted free blacks listed in these records.
• 1787 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 & 21 Years, the Number of Slaves over 16 & Those Under 16 Years, Together with a Listing of Their Horses, Cattle & 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. The source of this publication is the 1787 personal property tax list. Hardy County is included in Vol. 2.
• 1789 Indexed images of the 1789 Personal Property Tax List of Hardy County, Virginia  (now West Virginia) are available online, courtesy: Binns Genealogy.
• 1799 Images of the 1799 Personal Property Tax List of Hardy County, Virginia  (now West Virginia) are available online, courtesy: Binns Genealogy.
• 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. Available at FHL. [The source for this publication is the 1810 personal property tax list. Hardy County is included because the 1810 Census for that county has been destroyed.]
• 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. Hardy County is included in Vol. 6.

Online West Virginia Tax site

West Virginia real and personal property tax records are managed by the County Assessor in each county. Land and land improvements are considered real property while mobile property is classified as personal property.

Many County Assessors offer an online searchable database, where assessment record searches can be performed by name, account number, year, or mp/parcel number. Where online records are not available, requests for records can be made to the Assessment Office in person, by phone, or in writing.

The search for tax information can start here

Vital Records

• West Virginia Vital Records, 1865 - 1969 (varies) - Includes birth, death, and marriage.

Marriage

• 1780-1970 - West Virginia Marriages, 1780-1970 at FamilySearch — index - How to Use this Collection
• 1801-1962 - West Virginia, United States Marriages at FindMyPast — index $

Death

• 1804-1999 - West Virginia Deaths, 1804-1999 at FamilySearch — index - How to Use this Collection

Research Facilities

Archives

Listed below are archives in Hardy County. For state-wide archival repositories, see West Virginia Archives and Libraries.

Family History Centers

Family History Centers provide one-on-one assistance, free access to center-only databases, and to premium genealogical websites.
FamilySearch Affiliate Libraries have access to most center-only databases, but may not always have full services normally provided by a family history center.

• Family History Center and Affiliate Library Locator

Local Centers and Libraries

• Introduction to Family History Centers
  
• Petersburg West Virginia Family History Center

Libraries

Listed below are libraries in Hardy County. For state-wide library facilities, see West Virginia Archives and Libraries.

Societies

Listed below are societies in Hardy County. For state-wide genealogical societies, see West Virginia Societies.

• Hardy County Genealogical-Historical Society
  Moorefield, West Virginia 26836

Websites

• Hardy County, WV History, Records, Facts and Genealogy
• West Virginia Genealogy Network Group on Facebook
• USGenWeb project. May have maps, name indexes, history or other information for this county. Select the state, then the county.
• Cyndi's List for West Virginia
• Microfilms at the Library of Virginia for Hardy County, West Virginia
• FamilySearch Catalog - The FamilySearch catalog contains descriptions and access information for all genealogical materials (including books, online materials, microfilm, microfiche, and publications) in their collection.  Use Historical Records to search for specific individuals in genealogical records

This website requires a paid subscription for full access.

Family History Library