Clarke County, Virginia Genealogical Records Information

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Clarke County History and Information

Clarke County Facts

Clarke County was named for George Rogers Clark (spelled without an e), who helped win the Northwest Territory for Virginia during the Revolution. The county was formed from Frederick County in 1836, and part of Warren County was added in 1860. Its area is 174 square miles, and the county seat is Berryville. White Post was named for the large signpost pointing the way to Lord Fairfax's office. During the Civil War, John S. Mosby, "the Gray Ghost" of the Confederacy, raided General Sheridan's supply train in the summer of 1864, in Berryville. The Battle of Cool Spring was fought in Clarke County on July 17th and 18th, 1864. The population is 12,652 according to the 2000 census. Had pages cut from several record books during the Civil War. See Extended History for More information.

The Official County Website is located at http://www.co.clarke.va.us/ . Cities, Towns and Communities include Berryville and Boyce

Microfilm available for Clarke County at The Library of Virginia
Clarke County, Virginia History Books at Amazon.com
Family History Library - The largest collection of free family history, family tree and genealogy records in the world.

There are free downloadable and printable forms to help with your research. These include U.S. Census Extraction Forms, U.K. Census Extraction Forms, Research Calendar, Ancestral Chart, Research Extract, Correspondence Record , Family Group Sheet , Source Summary Form.

Clarke County Court Records

See Also Virginia Land Records, Marriage Records, Court & Probate Records

PLEASE READ!! Please call the clerk's department to confirm hours, mailing address, fees and other specifics before visiting or requesting information because of sometimes changing contact information.

   Clarke County Clerk of the Circuit Court has Marriage Records from 1836 , Land Records from 1836 , Probate Records from 1836 and Court Records from 1836 and is located at the County Courthouse on P. O. Box 189, 102 N. Church Street, Berryville, VA 22611-0189; 540/955-5116, Fax: 540/955-0284. Had pages cut from several record books during the Civil War.
   The Clerk of the Circuit Court is a constitutional official that is elected by the voters of Clarke County.
The Clerk is charged with responsibilities that include judicial and non-judicial duties.
   The Clerk provides administrative support for Circuit Court by preparing, recording, and maintaining court orders, subpoenas, and pleadings. The Clerk's Office also manages juries, disposal of evidence, collection of criminal fines and costs. Inquiries concerning the Court's procedures and policies and the records should be directed to the Clerk's Office, which serves as a repository for the Court's records.
   Non-judicial duties include the authority to probate wills, grant administration of estates, appoint guardians, issue marriage licenses. The Clerk acts as the Register of Deeds by recording all deeds, deeds of trust, real estate liens, releases and powers of attorney.
   The Clerk acts as the county archivist by maintaining records of the Court, real estate, probate and numerous other county records. Records management is an immense and critical responsibility of the Clerk's Office due to the volume and types of records.

There are a few online databases for Court, Land and Probate Records which include: Virginia Land, Marriage, and Probate Records, 1639-1850, Virginia County Records, Volume VI, Volume VII and Volume IX

Click Here to Search Virginia Court, Land, Wills & Financial Records! - Researchers often overlook the importance of court records, probate records, and land records as a source of family history information.

Below is a list of online resources for Clarke County Court Records. Email us with websites containing Clarke County Court Records by clicking the link below:

Clarke County, Virginia Court Books at Amazon.com
Virginia Immigration & Emigration Records - Immigration records help the family historian to understand the movements of their ancestry as they relocated to different parts of the world.

Clarke County Vital Records

See Also Research In Tax Records

Virginia's tax records are a rich—and largely untapped—resource. During the Colonial period, there were three basic forms of taxation: the quitrent, the parish levy, and the poll tax.
The quitrent was a land tax that had its roots in English manorial society where “the land obligations due the manor, such as plowing and haying the lord's land, were computed to an annual money payment. Upon payment, the obligations were `quit' for the year.” Those living south of the Rappahannock River paid a quitrent to the Crown. An original, incomplete list of land owners for the region in 1704 is in the Public Record Office in London and has been published several times, not always reliably. Residents of the Northern Neck, between the Rappahannock and Potomac Rivers, paid quitrents to the agents of Lord Fairfax. Many original rent rolls of the Fairfax proprietary are housed at the Huntington Library in San Marino, California. Extant original rent rolls and facsimiles for Virginia are available at The Library of Virginia.
The parish levy was an annual tax paid by all tithables for support of their ministers, maintenance of the parishes' glebe lands (the parsonage and lands producing income for the parish), and support of the poor of the parish.
The poll tax, except for a brief period from 1645 to 1648, was the main source of revenue for the colony of Virginia. The annual poll tax was computed by dividing the total expenses of the colony and individual counties by the total number of tithables. The result was levied on each tithable.
Tithables were variously defined during the colonial period. The first definition, in 1624, was “every male head above sixteen years of age.” All agricultural workers were added in 1629. In 1643 all males and black females aged sixteen or over were tithables. Imported male servants of any age were added in 1649.
The definition of “tithable” was rewritten in 1658. Tithables included free males aged sixteen or over, imported blacks of either sex, imported white male servants, and Indian servants of either sex; white women employed in agriculture were added in 1662. Complaints from planters with increasing numbers of indentured servants and slaves led to a revision in 1680 that declared Virginia-born male slaves taxable at age twelve and imported male servants taxable at age fourteen; nonwhite women and free males remained taxable at age sixteen.
The laws of Virginia were revised in 1705. From then until 1782, all males and nonwhite females aged sixteen or over were tithables. Wives of free nonwhite males were added in 1723.
Virginia's tax system changed after the Revolutionary War to include taxing land and personal property in 1782, with further revision in 1787. The bulk of those tax lists prior to 1850 survive and are available on microfilm at The Library of Virginia.

Below is a list of online resources for Clarke County Tax Records. Email us with websites containing Clarke County Tax Records by clicking the link below:

Clarke County, Virginia Tax Books at Amazon.com

Clarke County Genealogical Addresses

See Also Other Virginia Genealogical Addresses

The Repositories in this section are Archives, Libraries, Museums, Genealogical and Historical Societies. Many County Historical and Genealogical Societies publish magazines and/or news letters on a monthly, quarterly, bi-annual or annual basis. Contacting the local societies should not be over looked. State Archives and Societies are usually much larger and better organized with much larger archived materials than their smaller county cousins but they can be more generalized and over look the smaller details that local societies tend to have. Libraries can also be a good place to look for local information. Some libraries have a genealogy section and may have some resources that are not located at archives or societies. Also, take a special look at any museums in the area. They sometimes have photos and items from years gone by as well as information of a genealogical interest. All these places are vitally important to the family genealogist and must not be passed over.

Below is a list of online resources for Clarke County Genealogical Addresses. Email us with websites containing Clarke County Genealogical Addresses by clicking the link below:

Clarke County Historical Association, Museum and Archives, Old Courthouse, North Wing, P.O. Box 306, Berryville, VA 22611; (540) 955-2600
Local Virginia Researchers, Find a local researcher or become a local researcher.
The Library of Virginia, 800 East Broad Street, Richmond, Virginia 23219-8000; 804-692-3500
Virginia Genealogical Society, 5001 West Broad Street, Suite 115, Richmond, Virginia 23230-3023; Telephone (804) 285-8954
Please note that because of our close proximity to the Library of Virginia and the Virginia Historical Society, the Virginia Genealogical Society does not maintain a research facility or surname material.
Virginia Historical Society, 428 North Boulevard, Richmond, Virginia 23220, Phone: 804.358.4901
Mail: P.O.Box 7311, 23221-0311;Hours: Monday-Saturday 10-5 / Sunday 1-5 (galleries only)
Virginia Newspapers & Periodicals Records - Newspapers and periodicals are the diaries of local communities. They are excellent sources of family history details - often recorded nowhere else. Look for obituaries, marriages, legal notices, and more found in our Historical Newspaper Archives.
Virginia Genealogical Society Books at Amazon.com

Clarke County Church & Cemeteries

Click Here to Search Virginia Obituary Records! - This database is a compilation of obituaries published in U.S. newspapers, collected from various online sources. Obituaries can vary in the amount of information they contain, but many of them are genealogical goldmines, including information such as names, dates, places of birth and death, marriage information, and family relationships.

There are many churches and cemeteries in Clarke County. Some transcriptions are online. A great site is the Clarke County Tombstone Transcription Project.

Unlike New England, colonial Virginia left few early church records. The first Virginians were members of the Church of England, or Anglican church, which became the Episcopal Church in 1786. Early parish registers are incomplete and challenging to use. Parish boundaries changed rapidly and are hard to pinpoint.
Since colonial times, many religious groups have established congregations in Virginia, including Baptist, Catholic, Jewish, Lutheran, Presbyterian, and Quaker or Friends, to name a few. Except for the Quakers, few of these groups kept records containing such genealogical information as birth, marriage, and death dates. A number of church vestry books and registers have been published and are available at The Library of Virginia and the FHL.

The list of published tombstone inscriptions for Virginia, if a comprehensive list existed, would be lengthy. The DAR has compiled an extensive collection of Virginia tombstone inscriptions. The collection, along with other cemetery record publications, can be found at the DAR Library in Washington, D.C., The Library of Virginia, the Virginia Historical Society, and the FHL.

Cemetery interment registers and gravestone inscriptions may often be sources of useful information for Virginia researchers. The state government does not have a long, uninterrupted, centralized file of birth and death records that are readily accessible to researchers. Wars, floods, and fires have destroyed the vital record of many of Virginia's counties. Oftentimes, information found in cemetery records and on gravestones cannot be found anywhere else. When looking for a specific cemetery in Virginia, you may wish to start with the following comprehensive resource.

Below is a list of online resources for Clarke County Cemetery & Church Records. Email us with websites containing Clarke County Cemetery & Church Records by clicking the link below:

Virginia Old Churches, Vol. 1
Virginia Old Churches, Vol. 2
Virginia Early Quaker Records
The Virginia Baptist Historical Society
L. T. Christian Funeral Home Records Database - indexes the client files contained in the forty-one cubic feet of records covering the period 1912-1986.
J. Henry Brown Monuments Inc., Order Book - a searchable database indexing tombstone inscriptions covering the period 1899-1907. Many of the individuals listed were born before Virginia began keeping vital statistics in 1853.
Clarke County, Virginia Cemetery Books at Amazon.com
Clarke County, Virginia Church Books at Amazon.com

Family Trees & Genealogy Tidbits

Click Here to Search Virginia Family Tree Records! - The use of published genealogies, electronic files containing genealogical lineage, and other compiled sources can be of tremendous value to a researcher.

When view family trees online or not, be sure to only take the info at face value and always follow up with your own sources or verify the ones they provide. Below is a list of online resources for Clarke County Family Trees, web forums and other family type information . Email us with websites containing Clarke County Family Trees, web forums and other family type information by clicking the link below:

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Clarke County, Virginia Family Books at Amazon.com

Extended History

Clarke County, named for Revolutionary War hero, General George Rogers Clarke, was formed in 1836 from Frederick County, Virginia. This area was part of Lord Fairfax's 5 million acre property. Lord Fairfax built his American home at what is now the village of White Post, named for the large signpost pointing the way to Lord Fairfax's office.

A young George Washington came to the area to survey for Lord Fairfax. Here he met Daniel Morgan, later a hero of the Revolutionary War at the battles of Saratoga and the Cowpens. Members of Washington's family took up land here, and Washington visited them frequently.

In 1732, Robert "King" Carter who served as the American agent for the Proprietary, granted over 50,000 acres to his sons and neighbors. In the latter part of the 18th century, the descendants of these Tidewater grant holders moved here; bringing with them their slaves, plantation lifestyle, and love of fox hunting. The Southern half of the county especially invokes their gracious style of life. with its large estates and sleek thoroughbred horses. Large crops of wheat, grown on these plantations contributed to the title, "Bread Basket of the Confederacy" during the Civil War.

The Northern and Western section of the county, outside of the Tidewater Grant lands, was settled by immigrants from Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Mills and small farms abounded in this area.

By 1836, the inherent differences between the large landowners on the East and the German/Scotch-Irish settlers West of the Opequon Creek, created a chasm in life-styles that caused the new County of Clarke to be created.

During the Civil War, John Singleton Mosby, "the Gray Ghost" of the Confederacy, criss-crossed the county. At Berryville, in the summer of 1864, he raided Sheridan's 7 mile long supply train. On the Shenandoah River, after a foray into Maryland and DC, Confederate General Jubal Early's forces delayed a Union Army from entering the Valley during the Battle of Cool Spring. General Robert E. Lee, whose wife was born in Clarke County, camped here on his way to Gettysburg.

The Civil War devastated the area, but many of the old plantation homes survived and still stand today. Gradually the agricultural emphasis changed from wheat growing to fruit production, with immense orchards of apples spreading over the landscape. Thoroughbred horses still flourish, and are a major source of income and prestige within the county. Over time, the counties business base has become more diverse, while still maintaining the rural nature that Clarke Counties citizens still cherish.

Clarke County still seems a 'Separate Place' in time. The bustling air of the built-up counties to the east seems to soften as you cross the Blue Ridge. The Shenandoah flows serene, and tensions ebb as you watch its stately progress. Come to Clarke County and know a timeless peace.

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