I may have a good chance to get to the Shenandoah Valley for some library research time this summer -- but I will probably only be able to dropped off at ONE library -- which one would have best collection for early material -- 1750s -1800? I'm tracing several lines -- one is a group of early Shenandoah Valley settlers from PA & the other is early Scots-Irish into Beverley Manor/Patent. Also, where do I locate early land/probate/marriage records for people who were in Harrison/Hardy counties around 1780-1810 before these counties were in WV? FROM: Janice B. Patterson 30967 Sassafras Lane Westlake OH 44145-5171 phone 440-835-9171

Hi Janice, For basic genealogy information on the Valley, Handley Library in downtown Winchester is probably your best bet. It is also a short walk from both the Frederick County Courthouse and the Winchester Courthouse where you can look up old deeds and wills in those jurisdictions (part of Shenandoah county was originally Frederick County, the other part was Augusta to the south. The Shenandoah County Library in Edinburg also has some material also, however it is not as large and not close to the County Courthouse. I am not familiar with the southern "upper" valley but imagine that Augusta would probably have a good library and may be worth a trip if your ancestors were from the southern part of Shenandoah County. If you don't mind going just outside the Valley, the John Gott Memorial library just off interstate 66 in Markham (Fauquier County) is full of books donated by John Gott relating to genealogy and local history and Loudoun County has a large public genealogical library just outside of Leesburg. Farther east, Fairfax is pretty good and there is always the DAR and the Library of Congress in Washington itself. Your best bet with limited time is to visit the courthouses first and trace the deeds back or find the wills. These usually aren't available anywhere else except occationally as abstracts or indexes. >From: JANICE B PATTERSON <jlpatterson@juno.com> >To: SHENANDOAH-L@rootsweb.com >Subject: "Best" Library to VIsit >Date: Wed, 6 Jul 2005 12:14:16 -0400 > >I may have a good chance to get to the Shenandoah Valley for some library >research time this summer -- but I will probably only >be able to dropped off at ONE library -- which one would have best >collection for early material -- 1750s -1800? > >I'm tracing several lines -- one is a group of early Shenandoah Valley >settlers from PA & the other is early Scots-Irish into >Beverley Manor/Patent. > >Also, where do I locate early land/probate/marriage records for people >who were in Harrison/Hardy counties around >1780-1810 before these counties were in WV? > >FROM: >Janice B. Patterson >30967 Sassafras Lane >Westlake OH 44145-5171 >phone 440-835-9171 > > >==== SHENANDOAH Mailing List ==== > SHENANDOAH Families Mail List Archives: > courtesy of Rootsweb, our gracious host! >http://searches.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/listsearch.pl > Just type in the mail list's name: SHENANDOAH >