Genealogy and Local History

Genealogy and local history researchers may thank Earl Gregg Swem, for whom the Library is named, for his interest in both topics. He was responsible for acquiring many of our manuscript collections which detail local family histories.

While the collections in the Special Collections Research Center may help with your genealogical research we recommend that before using the SCRC, you

• Use the resources in Swem's reference and open stacks areas.  Swem has excellent genealogical resources for Virginia and some other states in the open stacks, mostly printed primary sources, indexes, and abstracts, as well as some in microform. There's a useful website about Swem's genealogical sources at:
• http://swem.wm.edu/resources/genealogy/
• Review the Guides to Virginia Genealogy.
• Check the Library's online catalog, LION, for pertinent family names.

Swem also has some online databases that may be helpful to genealogists.  While we do not subscribe to the major genealogical databases such as Ancestry and HeritageQuest, genealogists may find other resources useful.  If a person is not a William and Mary faculty, staff, or student, he or she will only be able to use these databases at Swem.  They include:  

• "America's Historical Newspapers" which includes digitized newspapers from the colonial period to 1922 for many cities and towns, not just the largest newspapers or cities. Since it's keyword-searchable, it's useful for finding marriage or death notices or any stray announcements involving the people one is researching.
• American National Biography and Dictionary of National Biography
• American Periodical Series--has 1,100 periodicals that began publishing in the period 1740-1900. These don't tend to be quite as useful for genealogists as the newspapers, but you never know what nuggets you might find.
• Biography and Genealogy Master Index--as the title indicates, this is an index; it doesn't have the sources. It indexes biographical entries in other publications, which can be useful in tracking them down.
• Early American Imprints, series I and series II, which include all publications (except newspapers/periodicals) published in America through 1819. This includes some published church records, town histories, etc.
• New England Ancestors--this is from the New England Historical and Genealogical Society, which started publishing in 1844.
• Pennsylvania Gazette Online, 1728-1800
• Washington Post, 1877-1990

Relevant collections of the SCRC include:

1) Numerous family papers.  The SCRC has the family papers of the Tucker-Colemans, the Tylers, the Upshurs, and many other Virginia families.  You can find these by search the online catalog for family names.

2) Church records.  The SCRC has records for several religious organizations, including:

• Bruton Parish Church in Williamsburg (for most of its history)
• Hickory Neck Church in Toano (1911-1992)
• Littleton Parish in Cumberland County (1840-1902)
• Gloucester Circuit of the Methodist Church (1825-1910)

3) Genealogical notes and research materials (including sometimes photocopies of original records) compiled by other researchers, including especially:

• The Genealogy Collection (Mss 39.4 G29) There are entries in the online catalog for each major family, and we have a full printed finding aid in the SCRC.
• The Tyree Collection (Mss 73 T99), which includes 624 notebooks of genealogical research compiled by Young Tyree. Again, there's a full printed finding aid.
• The William Carter Stubbs Papers (Mss 65 St95) has four boxes of material, largely genealogical notes relating to Gloucester County.  There's a full printed finding aid in the SCRC.

 

4) Some county and city records, including the James City County-Williamsburg Personal Property Tax Lists, 1880s-1940s, and miscellaneous records for various counties, including James City, Gloucester, Rockingham, and others.