This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/WBC.2ACI/2333.1 Message Board Post: The answer to your question may depend on several facts. The county courts lacked jurisdiction to try a white man for a felony. They had a preliminary hearing and either dismissed the case ("discharged the prisoner") or referred it to the General Court for trial. The records of the General Court were destroyed in the Civil War. In 1788, the General Assembly created District Courts which assumed that function. They began hearing cases in 1789. The district court which met in Richmond had its records with the General Court records. In the first instance you need to determine when in 1788 the preliminary hearing was. If late enough in 1788, it might have been referred to a district court for trial in 1789. If sent to a district court from Greenbriar County, the records would be either in the county courthouse where the district court met or in the West Virginia Dept of Archives and History, Science and Cultural Center, Capitol Complex, Charleston, WV 25305. This last address is likely to be 20 years old and the name of the state agency and its location in Charleston may have changed.