The following important events affected political boundaries, record keeping, and family movements. 1607 The Virginia Company of London founded the first permanent English settlement in America at Jamestown 1624 The King dissolved the Virginia Company and established Virginia as a crown colony with an elected General Assembly. 1710- Passes across the Blue Ridge Mountains leading from eastern 1740s Virginia into the Shenandoah Valley were discovered. Emigrants from Pennsylvania and New Jersey began to enter the valley. 1750- Land grants made to the Ohio Company encouraged ex- 1784 ploration beyond the Alleghenies. The new area southeast of the Ohio River was organized by Virginia in 1775 as the District of West Augusta, although much of this was ceded to PA. in 1786. 1770s The Wilderness Road opened access across the Cumberland Gap from Virginia into Kentucky. The area that was to become Kentucky was organized as Kentucky County, Virginia, in 1776. 1780s In 1784, Virginia formally ceded its claims north of the Ohio River to the United States. In 1788 Virginia ratified the United States constitution to become a state. 1792 Kentucky became a separate state. 1861- Most of Virginia joined the Confederacy, although fifty western 1870 counties broke off and were admitted to the Union as the state of West Virginia in 1863. Virginia was readmitted to the Union in 1870. Throughout most of its history, parts of the territory that old Virginia once claimed were carved off to form parts of other states: 1779 part of Virginia became part of North Carolina 1786 part of Virginia became part of Pennsylvania 1792 part of Virginia became Kentucky 1792 part of Virginia became part of Maryland 1803 part of Virginia became part of Tennessee 1803 part of Virginia became Ohio and Indiana territory 1816 former part of Virginia became Indiana 1818 former part of Virginia became Illinois 1863 part of Virginia became West Virginia