Hi Shirley, Marguerite and all, I have been to the Raleigh County court many times. The first thing you will need is coins for the long term parking meters which is about 2 blocks from the courthouse building. The courthouse staff is limited, but they will show you the location of marriage, death, birth and deed books. It is help your self, but they expect each person to return books to the shelf. Raliegh County Court records start with 1850. and these books are keep in order with very good index books. All of these books are very large with the old sewn binding so they will not put them on the copy machine. Be prepared to do lots of hand writing. When I was there last July there was talk about a local historical group who were trying to get a grant to have the book rebound so each page could be remove and copied. Also, this information on Raleigh County would be a big help in finding records about ancestors of that area and I quote from my book:"In 1850 Raleigh County was formed from the southwest part of Fayette County. In 1871 Raleigh County annexed 168 square mile (107,520 acres) from Wyoming County. This section of land is now called Slab Fork District. Records in Raleigh County Land Book shows that William A Fink asked for a boundary adjustment because he owned land in both counties, but lived only twenty miles from Raleigh County Court House. He only owned three hundred and forty five and a half acres on Tommie Creek so what was the reason for the large land grab, approved by the West Virginia State Legislature? In her book, Mary Keller Bowman states that Historian G P Goode wrote, that the annexation was to strengthen each county's political majority-Democrat in Raleigh and Republican in Wyoming. Of course, Raleigh County gained the rich coal fields of Winding Gulf." So if you find your people on Raleigh County 1880 census, but don't find them on then on the 1870 census check the Wyoming County 1870 census. Hope this will help, Doris At 09:18 PM 6/29/98 -0500, you wrote: > > >Can anyone help Marguerite out with this. I've never dealt with the >courthouse in Raleigh. > >>Date: Thu, 25 Jun 1998 18:23:12 -0400 >>From: "M. Marguerite Mathews" <pontine@nh.ultranet.com> >>Reply-To: 110@nh.ultranet.com, Union@nh.ultranet.com, St.@nh.ultranet.com, >> Portsmouth@nh.ultranet.com, NH@nh.ultranet.com, 03801@nh.ultranet.com >>Organization: Pontine Movement Theatre >>X-Mailer: Mozilla 2.02 (Macintosh; I; 68K) >>To: toodles@airmail.net >>Subject: Raleigh Co. Research >>X-URL: http://www.rootsweb.com/~wvraleig/ >> >>Hello--I'm planning to visit Raleigh Co. late in July in order to >>research my family history -- BOWYER, BLYTHE, COPELAND, DAVIS, >>HUMPHREY, KIRBY, MCDANIELS, RAINES, & TYREE. All of these families >>resided in Fayette, Raleigh, & Monroe Co. I would so appreciate >>knowing where I will find county records for Raleigh Co. I know >>Beckley is the County Seat, are public records accessible for research >>there? >>Thank You! Marguerite Mathews / pontine@nh.ultranet.com > >Toodles! >Shirley >toodles@airmail.net >~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ >The Toodlz Page: http://members.xoom.com/Toodlz/ >4-H in Collin County Texas: http://county.tamu.edu/collin/ >Take It By STORM Volleyball: http://members.xoom.com/TIBS_Vball/ >USGenWeb Project: http://www.usgenweb.net/ >~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > > >==== WVRALEIG Mailing List ==== >I want to Thank Rootsweb for making this Mailing List Possible. >Are you a Rootweb Supporter? > > > >