Virginia Repositories—Southwest Virginia

The Virginia Room: Local History & Genealogy
Washington County Public Library
205 Oak Hill St.
Abingdon, Virginia

Website and catalog: http://www.wcpl.net

Washington County Public Library

When talking about genealogical resources available at the Washington County Public Library it is important to note that we work very closely with the Historical Society of Washington County, Virginia in providing information and resources. The Historical Society has far more family histories than we do, but we are open more hours and on weekends throughout the year.

Repository

The Virginia Room is located in the Main Library at 205 Oak Hill St. NE, in Abingdon, VA. Our hours of operation are 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., Monday‒Thursday and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Fridays and Saturdays. The library is closed on Sundays between Memorial Day and Labor Day and is open from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Sundays from Labor Day to Memorial Day.

Be Prepared

• No food or drink in the Virginia Room.
• A self-service photocopier is available. Copies are fifteen cents a page.
• Images or text can be photographed or copied with a USB flash drive.

General Holdings

While we do have over one hundred family history books (not to mention those that are available through Heritage Quest), our collection is more geared to local history. The scope of our Washington County records includes:

Marriage: 1776‒1902 (various items); Births and Deaths: 1853‒1892; Deaths (Unfiled): 1865‒1896;
Census: 1787, 1810, 1820, 1840, 1860, 1870, 1880 (Indexes, transcriptions, photocopies of enumeration sheets);
Personal Property Tax Lists: 1782‒1850;
Guardian Bonds (Historical Society of Washington County Publication, Series II, No. 21);
Minutes Board of Overseers of Poor: 1826‒1863; Minute Books: 1777‒1866;
Deed Books: 1797‒1863; Will Books: 1777‒1866
Cemeteries: High on a Windy Hill (Historical Society of Washington County, VA), with additions;
Families: 1776‒1996, Holston Genealogical Society; Genealogies of Virginia;
Washington County History: 1776‒1976 (Neal, Bicentennial History);
History of Washington County to 1865, Hagy (2013)

Collections

The Davenport Collection is made up of three special collections: the L.C. Angle Collection, which contains materials donated in honor of Mr. Angle, a distinguished historian; the Mary Belle Price Appalachian Collection; and the Davenport Collection, the personal library (genealogy titles) of Peter J. Davenport.

The Louise Fortune Hall Collection consists of the personal papers and other effects of a well-known local historian and community leader. Louise Fortune Hall lived from 1911 to 2008. She was a life-long resident of Damascus, Virginia, a Blue Ridge Mountain foothills town near the Tennessee border.  The Hall Collection consists of primary and secondary materials that mirror a small Appalachian town’s social, cultural and economic history in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. She was listed in Notable Women West of the Blue Ridge. The Hall Collection and index is available online: http://www.archives-wcpl.net/archive7_hall/. Access to the Hall Collection is by appointment only and advanced permission. Write or call the library before you leave home. Images in the Hall Collection can be reproduced only with the consent of the family. A copyright permission form is required.

Virginia Repositories—Southwest Virginia