West Virginia genealogy records

Births and deaths, 1853 to 1916

Before 1853, births and deaths were not recorded in West Virginia. From 1853 to 1916, they were recorded only at the county level, and no statewide index exists for these years. The originals are in the county courthouses, with a few at the West Virginia and Regional History Collection at West Virginia University. County records microfilmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah are in the Archives and History Library. For 1853 to 1860, some duplicate county records also survive on Library of Virginia microfilm.

Digitized county records from these years are in the free Vital Research Records database. If you find a county birth or death dated before 1853 there, the Archives explains that it is a delayed record accepted by the clerk, an error by the clerk or the transcriber, or an exceptional case noted on the record. The database is not fully transcribed, and the scanned pages are two-page spreads, so scroll left and right to find your entry on the image.

State certificates from 1917

In 1917, the Vital Registration office began issuing state birth and death certificates and creating delayed birth records by affidavit. State and county death records are withheld for 50 years from issuance, and a new year of state death certificates is added to the online database in a batch, usually on January 1. As of the Archives' December 2023 guide, state death certificates from 1917 through 1973 were free online, and uncertified copies were available from the Archives and History Library for a $2.50 statutory fee. Deaths from 1974 on are available only as certified copies from the Vital Registration office.

Births are released online only after 100 years. As of the December 2023 guide, state birth certificates from 1920 to 1930 were available as uncertified copies from the Archives and History Library for $2.50, and births from 1931 on only as certified copies from the Vital Registration office. Six counties added first (Calhoun, Gilmer, Hardy, Harrison, Mineral, and Pendleton) include some later births online. The library has a microfilmed index to delayed birth records, which covers births before 1900, 1900 to 1916, and 1917 through 1991.

One gap: state death certificates numbered 4501 through 5000 for 1920 were lost before microfilming. The state index still gives the name, date, county, and certificate number, and the county death record may survive.

Marriages and divorces

Marriage records exist in each county from the county's creation, and the originals are in the county courthouses. Copies come from the county clerk. County records microfilmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah usually run up to the date of filming, generally 1968 to 1971, and images from that microfilm are in the Vital Research Records database, though not every filmed record is there and a few of the earliest are not legible.

For 1921 to 1991, the Archives and History Library has a statewide marriage index on microfilm, by groom for every year and by bride for every year except 1936, 1937, and 1938. Use it to find the date and county, then look up the county record, and ignore the book and page numbers in the index, which belong to an abandoned state project. Certified copies of marriage license applications from 1964 on come from the Vital Registration office. Divorce records are available only from the appropriate circuit court clerk.

Census and county lines

Before 1863, West Virginia families appear in the census of Virginia. The Archives and History Library has the Virginia census, which includes counties now in West Virginia, for 1810 to 1860, along with the 1850 and 1860 slave schedules. It also has West Virginia census records for 1870, 1880, 1900, 1910, 1920, and 1930, and the 1890 special census of Union veterans and widows.

Most West Virginia material is arranged by county, so learn when your county was formed and from which counties. Berkeley County dates from 1772, formed from Frederick County, while Mingo County was formed from Logan only in 1895, and Summers County was made in 1871 from parts of Fayette, Greenbrier, Mercer, and Monroe. For years before your county was formed, check the records of the counties it was formed from.

Land, wills, and tax records

The county records on microfilm at the Archives and History Library include wills, deeds, surveys, estate records, and some circuit court and naturalization records, though some are incomplete. Land tax books, prepared by county assessors for the State Auditor, run from each county's formation to the 1930s, and for almost half of the counties through 1959. Personal property tax lists from before statehood are on microfilm for some counties, with the originals at the Library of Virginia in Richmond.

Early land grants came from Virginia. The library has grants copied from the Virginia Land Office and indexed by Sims, and microfilm from the Library of Virginia of Northern Neck grants and Virginia land surveys from 1779 to 1861.

Military records

For the Civil War, West Virginia Archives and History holds the West Virginia Adjutant General's Papers, mostly letters and documents about West Virginia Union regiments and militia, with a few Confederate items. The library has indexed microfilm of service records for West Virginia Union troops, arranged by regiment and company, which give name, age, date and place of enlistment and discharge, and sometimes brief notes. Confederate records of Virginia and West Virginia are also on microfilm, as is a veterans' burial file for some servicemen buried in the state before 1936.

For the twentieth century, the library has World War I draft cards and World War II Old Man's Draft cards for West Virginians on microfilm, and a searchable West Virginia Veterans Memorial database covers service members who died in twentieth-century conflicts and are named on the memorial at the Capitol Complex.