Carroll County, Virginia Genealogical Records Information

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Carroll County History and Information

Carroll County Facts

Carroll County was named for Charles Carroll of Carrollton, a signer of the Declaration of Independence from Maryland. It was formed from Grayson County in 1842, and part of Patrick County was added in 1856. Its area is 497 square miles, and the county seat is Hillsville. According to the 2000 census, its population is 29,245. See Extended History for More information.

The Official County Website is located at http://www.co.carroll.va.us/ . Cities, Towns and Communities include Cana, Fancy Gap, Hillsville and Woodlawn

Microfilm available for Carroll County at The Library of Virginia
Carroll 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.

Carroll 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.

   Carroll County Clerk of the Circuit Court has Marriage Records from 1842 , Land Records from 1842 , Probate Records from 1842 and Court Records from 1842 and is located at the County Courthouse on ? .
   The Clerk of the Circuit Court is a constitutional official that is elected by the voters of Carroll 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 Carroll County Court Records. Email us with websites containing Carroll County Court Records by clicking the link below:

Carroll 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.

Carroll 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 Carroll County Tax Records. Email us with websites containing Carroll County Tax Records by clicking the link below:

Carroll County, Virginia Tax Books at Amazon.com

Carroll 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 Carroll County Genealogical Addresses. Email us with websites containing Carroll County Genealogical Addresses by clicking the link below:

Galax-Carroll Regional Library, 608 West Stuart Drive, Galax, VA 24333, (540) 236-2042
Carroll County Historical Society Museum, 307 North Main Street, P.O. Box 937, Hillsville, VA 24343; 540-728-4113
Carroll County Historical Society, Inc., P. O. Box 937, Hillsville, VA 24343,
Meetings are held the 3rd Monday night each month at the Carroll County Historical Museum, Hillsville, VA
Carroll County Chamber of Commerce, P. O. Box 1184, Hillsville, VA 24343,
Open Monday through Friday 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.Located in the Old Carroll County Courthouse at 515 North Main Street.
Carroll County Genealogy Club, P. O. Box 395, Hillsville, VA 24343,
Meetings are the 3rd Wednesday night of each month at the Carroll County Genealogy building (the old Porter building), beside the Historical Museum, Hillsville, VA
Carroll County Administrators Office, P.O. Box 515, Hillsville, VA 24343-0515, (540) 728-333
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

Carroll 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 Carroll County. Some transcriptions are online. A great site is the Carroll 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 Carroll County Cemetery & Church Records. Email us with websites containing Carroll 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.
Carroll County, Virginia Cemetery Books at Amazon.com
Carroll 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 Carroll County Family Trees, web forums and other family type information . Email us with websites containing Carroll County Family Trees, web forums and other family type information by clicking the link below:

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Genealogical Document Search and Retrieval Service
Carroll County, Virginia Family Books at Amazon.com

Extended History

Caroline County was established in 1728 from Essex, King and Queen, and King William counties. It was named for Caroline of Ansbach, the wife of King George II of Great Britain.

During the Colonial Period, Caroline County was the birthplace of Thoroughbred Racing in North America. Arabian horses were imported from England to provide the basis for American breeding stock.

Patriot Edmund Pendleton played a large role in the Virginia Resolution for Independence (1775) and Caroline native, John Penn, was a signer of the Declaration of Independence (www.foundersofamerica.org).

Explorers, William Clark and his slave, York, were members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition (1803); both were born near what is now Ladysmith, Virginia in Caroline.

During the Civil War Confederate troops under General George E. Pickett fought Union troops near Milford in 1864. Confederate General Stonewall Jackson died in Guinea after being shot by his own troops at the Chancellorsville, He survived the gun shot wound but he ended up dieing after the unsterile conditions of medical treatments of that era. John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of President Lincoln, was shot by federal troops in Caroline County.

The Legacy of the Early Settlers of Carroll County
When preparing this brief history of Carroll County, the primary sources of my information were works of the late John Perry Alderman. He is the recognized historian of Carroll County and his untimely death robbed us of a wealth of historical knowledge. Fortunately, he did complete a book on the early settlements in Carroll and in the fall of 1992, as part of the county's sesquicentennial celebration, he taught a Carroll County History class to a group of local teachers. I was privileged to be a member of that class. It is impossible to outline 240 years of history in 10 minutes, so I have elected to look at the legacy of the people who settled Carroll County---namely, those characteristics of the settlers which have influenced and continue to influence today's county.

It is not known who first explored the area of Carroll but the first record of anyone being in the county was a land title issued in November 1749 to James Wood for land in the area that got its name from James Wood-Woodlawn. However, he was a speculator and never lived in the county. Permanent settlement followed after roads were developed in the 1760's to market the lead ore from the Ft. Chiswell area of Wythe County. The lead ore was shipped south to the Moravian settlement of Salem NC along the Flour Gap Road (roughly present day Route 620) and the Ward's Gap Road that followed old US 52 down Main Street of Hillsville, south to Mtn. Plains Church and them eastward and over the mountains at Utt's Orchards. It is estimated that 80,000 people traveled down the Wilderness Road to Tennessee and Kentucky and many of them came from North Carolina by way of Ward's Gap and Flour Gap. To the east the ore was shipped through the Dugspur region and it was over this route that settlement of the eastern section of Carroll was made.

A few people were here by the late 1750's and in the early 1760's but the steady influx of settlers began in the 1770's and flourished in the 1790's. It is estimated that there were about 100 households in the area of Carroll at the beginning of the Revolutionary War. By 1815 all the desirable land had been claimed although some was still held by land speculators.

There were two major sources of settlements in Carroll. The first came from the foothill counties of Pittsylvania and Bedford, Virginia. Most of these settlers were second and third generation Virginians and most were of English origin although there were some Scots, Irish, German, Welsh, Swiss, and French mixed in. They began the settlement in eastern Carroll near the Burks Fork region. The other major group of settlers was the Quakers, descendants of the original Quaker families in America who were also primarily of English origin. When the Quaker families came to Carroll, they came mainly from Guilford and Surry counties, NC, often to escape the discrimination they suffered for their pacifist views. By 1805, 1/3 of the county population was Quaker and they had the only organized religion in the county with four meeting houses: one in the Coal Creek Gap area, one in Burks Fork area, one at Ward's Gap and the fourth at present day north end Hillsville. However, the stay of the Quaker families was short-lived and by 1825, most were gone moving primarily to Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. Some Quakers who married outside the church remained with their families in Carroll and became leaders and prominent citizens in those years. One can only speculate if and how the history of the county would be different if the Quakers had remained the dominant population of Carroll County.

Basically all these settlers came with their families and in family clusters. Most sold small farms in the counties they came from. They were not of nobility, but neither were they lawless individuals. Most came looking for an opportunity for a better life. But they had to be an adventuresome lot since they loaded everything they owned in a wagon and came to an unknown, unpopulated and heavily wooded area. With only their own resources to draw on, they cleared the land, built cabins, and developed a sense of community even though most lived in relative isolation from the others.

The early settlers were frugal, hardworking and self-sufficient. They typically farmed an owner-operated farm of 150 acres. Work was done by family members and most of the families had several children. For the most part they made much their own furniture, their own clothes and raised their own food. In 1815 there were no "professional" people living in the County; and whatever schooling occurred usually took place in the homes. The exceptions being both the Quakers men and women who were highly literate for their time and who kept extensive records within their churches. As the county as a whole and Carroll County grew and transportation and communication improved, the degree of self-sufficiency was no longer and necessity but for many remained a way of thinking in Carroll County. The pattern of the small family farm life continued in Carroll County and even in 1910, Carroll was one of only five Virginia counties with over 95% of all available land in farms.

While the number and size of owner farms decreased over the next 50 years, it has only been since the 1980's that the manufacturing, government, and retail sectors of the economy became the largest employers in the county. From the beginning of the settlement, Carroll Countians have enjoyed a high degree of autonomy in their lives. Alderman writes in the settlement; "Nearly every family owned its own piece of ground and was beholden to no man for it. All were proud and fiercely independent, dedicated to the work ethic and to the personal proposition (still widely held) that the true test of one's character was the promptness with which he paid his debts". These attributes of the historical settlers can be seen through out the history and up to the present time in the county.

When the Civil War began in 1860, the population of Carroll County was 8012 with 884 white males ages 17-34. Of these 884 men, some 600 volunteered within six months after the firing upon of Fort Sumter. Alderman attributes this large number of volunteers to native stubbornness, a sense of adventure, and the patriotism and loyalty toward their state. Certainly, it was not for the cause of slavery since there were 261 slaves in all of Carroll owned by 66 people and only five people owned more than 10 slaves.

Some 50 years after the end of the War, the most famous event in Carroll County history occurred with the shootout at the courthouse and its resulting deaths and injuries. While there is still much speculation about the cause or causes of this event, no one disputes the role and influence of strong family ties and that sense of personal autonomy. When Carroll County native and capitalist, George L. Carter sought workers for his empire of railroads and mining in the early 1900's, he is said to have favored men from the Carroll County area because of their strong work ethic and their loyalty. So many people from this area worked for Mr. Carter that they and their descendants still hold a reunion each year at the VFW in Hillsville.

Times have changed in rural areas of the Country and Carroll County is no exception. In 1994, 34% of the county employment was in manufacturing with only a small number employed in farming. But a story related by the late Jim Cobb, personnel director, at the Hillsville Sara Lee plant, illustrated that the traditional Carroll County values of hard work and personal responsibility have not changed. In the mid to late 1990's American industry adopted the Japanese concept of teaming. The Hillsville Sara Lee plant was having less success with teaming than to her facilities because so many of the workers wanted to work independently and prided themselves on their own individual work production. The plant did eventually implement the concept of teaming, and many of those same excellent individual workers became the strongest team members.

What we are as a people in the year 2000 has been shaped by our individual and common histories. As we look to the future, let us capitalize on and incorporate those strong and positive attributes of self-sufficiency, personal responsibility, and strong work ethic that have characterized our people throughout the history of Carroll County.

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