There are few contemporaneous maps of Virginia counties for 1790 and 1800
that show clear boundaries that can be matched up with modern jurisdictions.
The maps in the front of printed census indexes are woefully inadequate and
contain many errors making assumptions that counties were formed entirely
from one parent county at times.
There are several atlases which deal with the changes in Virginia county
boundaries:
I have published four separate atlases for Southside Virginia,
Tidewater/Chesapeake Virginia, Central Virginia, and the
Potomac/Rappahannock Valleys of Virginia and West Virginia and show the
changes in boundaries in each of these regions as a new change happened. If
anyone is interested in these books, they may contact me at my HOME email
address for order information: [log in to unmask]
<mailto:[log in to unmask]> . (I'm fixing a few of my own errors in some
boundaries in these maps too.)
Another message refers people to the Virginia genweb page, 180 Years
Changes. This is kind of neat, but there are many errors in the boundaries
reflected in these maps - Louisa County went to the Blue Ridge originally
and included the northern one-third of modern Albemarle County, for example.
Stafford and King George were long skinny counties until assuming their
present shapes with a major land swap in the mid-1700s. Same for New Kent
and James City Counties.
Michael Doran's Atlas of Virginia County Boundaries published by Iberian
Publishing Company is also available still, but has the same kinds of major
errors about parent county boundaries as does the on-line one above.
And, hopefully, in the not too distant future, the Virginia/West Virginia
volume of the series Atlas of Historical County Boundaries prepared by the
Newberry Library in Chicago will be out. They are looking for a publisher of
this last east-coast state volume and may have found one just the other day.
Eric G. Grundset
Library Director
DAR Library
1776 D St., N.W.
Washington, DC 20006-5392
202-879-3313
[log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
-----Original Message-----
From: Yvonne and Steve [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Monday, May 20, 2002 9:26 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: County maps of Virginia - pre Civil War
Hi Listers,
We get many emails pertaining to many different subjects. The
assumption is that, because of our tax list website, we are experts in many
fields of Virginian history. We are the very first to admit we are not.
Below is a question about maps. We hope someone on this list can answer it.
We also have an interest in this same subject for the time of the 1790 and
1800 censuses: What did Virginian counties look like for these two census
years?
Please forgive the cross posting to 3 lists but we believe if an
answer can be found it can be given from someone on one of these three lists
!!
Steve and Bunny
"1790" / "1800" County Tax Lists of Virginia
Alternative 1790 and 1800 Virginia Censuses
-------------------
In a message dated 5/20/02 2:37:20 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:
Hello,
Can you tell me where I can find online maps showing the pre-Civil
War counties of Virginia?
I imagine that when West Virginia broke away, some of the existing
counties were altered in the process.
For example I had ancestors who were living in Mercer and Summer
Counties, West Virginia in 1870-1880. Were these Virginia counties of the
same name in 1850? Are the present-day boundaries those of 1850?
Thank you very much for any help that you might be able to give me
on this.
Yours gratefully,
Trace Dunn
Clussais la Pommeraie, France
---------
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