The state of Virginia encompassed most of what is now the United States and parts of Canada and Mexico before it was sliced and diced to create the rest of the colonies. By 1784, only the land comprising present-day Virginia, West Virginia and Kentucky was left. Its borders shrank again in 1792 when Kentucky was granted statehood. The federal government took another chunk in 1789 to help form the District of Columbia, but gave it back in 1846. In 1863, West Virginia was born. Four years later, two more Virginia counties joined the offspring.
Poor surveying led to continual boundary disputes among Delaware, Maryland and Pennsylvania. It wasn't until 1921 that Pennsylvania and Delaware came to an agreement on a piece of land called "The Wedge." It was officially awarded to Delaware.
There's a point to this iteration of changing borders. As the country's population grew and migrated to other areas, state and county boundaries shifted as well.
In America's formative years, your ancestor could have spent his entire life on the same plot of ground and yet officially resided in more than one state and two or three counties. That's how quickly boundary lines changed. This is vital information for genealogists because records generally stayed where they originated.
In the case of Virginia, all local records deeds, wills, marriage bonds stayed within the respective counties even though the counties became part of another state. State records (personal property tax, legislative petitions, land office records) remained in Virginia. Still, the Virginia State Archives has some county records for both West Virginia and Kentucky (www.lva.lib.va.us)
County boundaries within most states continued to change until the late 1800s, and in newer states like those out West, sometimes later than that. In 1775, for example, Pennsylvania had eight counties. By 1810, the state's landscape had been carved into 42 counties, according to a Bureau of Land Records map. Another 20 were added by 1850. Today there are 67.
Researchers need to know the date when a county was formed and the name of its parent county to avoid missing important documents.
To illustrate, let's say a man bought a farm in Bedford County in 1794. You'll find documents pertaining to this transaction at the Bedford County courthouse. Two years later, the man dies. You'll have to go to the Somerset County courthouse to find his will and probate records. That's because Somerset County was carved from Bedford County in 1795. The man didn't move. But he left a paper trail in both counties. Moreover, he would have appeared in Bedford County on the 1790 federal census and in Somerset County on the 1800 census.
Your best approach for pinpointing the location of the records you need is to create a geographical timeline that includes significant dates. Several online guides exist to help you with this chore, like http://usgenmap.Rootsweb.com which features maps and narratives pertaining to borders, land transfers and acquisitions from 1783 to the present. By using its cross reference for county names, you can plug the name of a town into the search box to get the name of the county where it's located. For links to county sites, go to www.usgenweb.org/statelinks-table.html.
Not online? The same information can be found at the library or in books like Map Guide to the U.S. Federal Census, 1790-1920 by William Thorndale and William Dollarhide.
Just as state and county borders changed, so did township boundaries. Occasionally they simply vanish. On the 1850 federal census, Youghiogheny Township in Fayette County, Pa., boasted 54 families and 238 inhabitants. The township never appeared on another census. Created in 1847, it was eliminated in 1855 when a portion of it became part of the newly formed Stewart Township and the rest was absorbed by Springfield Township.
- Donna Murray Allen welcomes your questions about genealogy and will respond to those of general interest in future columns. Sorry, she can't take phone calls, but you can write to her c/o Floridian, St. Petersburg Times, P.O. Box 1121, St. Petersburg, FL 33731, or e-mail her at rootscolumn@yahoo.com Or visit her Web site: www.rootsdetective.com
