Start with the county associated with your research question. These guides focus on record survival and usable archival starting points, with links to the repositories that describe the material.
Researching Virginia’s Burned Records
Learn how to distinguish a lost record from an unsuccessful search, and where surviving copies or related records may be found.
Hanover County
Civil War losses, local indexes, and surviving chancery resources.
King and Queen County
Court minutes, order books, and estate-related catalog leads.
King William County
The 1885 fire, surviving records books, and sheriff’s records.
New Kent County
Fee books, bonds, and court material that survived major losses.
Researching another Virginia locality?
This first group is not a statewide inventory. Use the Library of Virginia locality guide to identify other counties and their archival resources. Each new guide will be added only after its sources have been checked.