I, too, have difficulty finding information on the LVA web site. There
is much more information there than at the time when I first visited LVA.
First, do some planning. Know what you're looking for. Find all the
information you can online or elsewhere. For example, most main
libraries for the county have a subscription to ancestry.com for onsite
use, and many have heritagequestonline.com for use from home, so do your
census research elsewhere and before you go. Same for more recent
deaths in the SSDI. I printed out pedigree charts before I went to
LVA,, and also descendant charts for the VA families.
We have a large number of family members in/from Virginia, so i started
with the birth, marriage, and death records. Birth and marriage records
(1853-1896 & later for marriages) are indexed, deaths 1853-1896 are not,
although there are supposed to be some indices online, but I have yet to
find them. I copied the indices for the surnames of interest, and looked
up first names for those common surnames. Next I copied the
probate/will indices for the surnames/counties of interest, and some of
the deed indices. And then looked up some of the wills. When I got
home, I transcribed the births and marriages for the surnames/counties of
interest. On a later trip, I looked up the full marriage records (index
for births had sufficient information), I copied obituaries from
newspapers. I also used the card index for Confederate pensions (now
online). I found out that I could get the personal property tax records
through interlibrary loan (or at least some of them), so I later borrowed
those from interlibrary loan.
I did spend some time looking at the books, but I didn't find many books
with information on my family that I hadn't seen before (in local library
or Library of Congress). Books can often be borrowed through
interlibrary loan, so I identified books of interest in the library of
congress catalog, and then requested them from other libraries through
interlibrary loan. And now, searching for a family member name and book
title, you can often find that in google books online, unless you need a
lot of information from that book.
I also found the manuscript collection useful. We have several surnames
from the 1600's in Virginia, although some we hadn't connected back that
far. I don't remember how I searched for useful materials. The
librarians must have pointed me in the right direction.
Many marriages from before 1850 are available transcribed in books.
Those that aren't can be found in the microfilmed marriage bonds,
available at LVA, and through interlibrary loan.
Sue
On Sun, 24 Jun 2012 22:16:15 -0400 "S. M. Lantz" <[log in to unmask]>
writes:
> I am preparing to visit the Library of Virginia. I visited the
> library many years ago, unprepared, and found I was baffled about
> how to even request and use the materials available. I am no novice
> at using library services or visiting various county clerk offices,
> both in Virginia and West Virginia. However, I would like to be
> better prepared for this visit.
>
> I have visited the LVA website but I am still not comfortable that I
> am prepared for the visit. I would like to know if there is a video
> tour of the library available or a recommendation for the first
> place to stop when I get there.
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