Harrison County, West Virginia Genealogy

United States

West Virginia

Harrison County

Guide to Harrison County, West Virginia ancestry, genealogy and family history, birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, family history, and military records.

County Facts County seat: Clarksburg Organized: May 3, 1784 Parent County(s): Monongalia Neighboring Counties Barbour  • Doddridge  • Lewis  • Marion  • Taylor  • Upshur  • Wetzel See County Maps Courthouse Location Map Adoption This page is available for adoption

County Information

Description

The County was named for Benjamin Harrison V. The County is located in the central area of the state.

County Courthouse

Harrison County Courthouse
301 W Main Street
Clarksburg, WV 26301-2909
Phone: 304-624-8611
Harrison County Website

County Clerk has birth and death records from 1853, and marriage records from 1784.

Harrison County, West Virginia Record Dates

Information for this chart was taken from various sources, often containing conflicting dates. This information should be taken as a guide and should be verified by contacting the county and/or the state government agency.

Known Beginning Dates for Major County Records
Birth*	Marriage	Death*	Court	Land	Probate	Census
1853	1784	1853	1784	1786	1788	1870
Statewide registration for births and deaths began in 1917. General compliance by 1925.

Record Loss

There is no known history of courthouse disasters in this county.

Boundary Changes

1784--Harrison County was created 3 May 1784 from Monongalia County. County seat: Clarksburg For animated maps illustrating West Virginia county boundary changes, "Rotating Formation West Virginia County Boundary Maps" (1617-1995) may be viewed for free at the MapofUS.org website.

Populated Places

For a complete list of populated places, including small neighborhoods and suburbs, visit Hometown Locator. The following are the most historically and genealogically relevant populated places in this county:

Cities
Bridgeport Clarksburg (county seat)	Salem Shinnston	Stonewood
Towns
Anmoore Lost Creek	Lumberport Nutter Fort	West Milford
Census-designated places
Despard Enterprise	Gypsy Hepzibah	Wallace Wolf Summit

Resources

Business, Commerce, and Occupations

Occupations

• Cutten, George Barton. The Silversmiths of Virginia (together with Watchmakers and Jewelers) from 1694 to 1850. Richmond, Va.: The Dietz Press, Incorporated, 1952. FHL Collection. Includes a section on Clarksburg silversmiths.

Cemeteries

Cemeteries of Harrison County, West Virginia online and in print
Tombstone Transcriptions Online	Findagrave.com WVGenWeb WVGenWeb Archives WVTombstone Project Interment Billion Graves Index at FamilySearch
Tombstone Transcriptions in Print (Often more complete)	Family History Library WorldCat
List of Cemeteries in the County	Findagrave.com Billion Graves EPodunk
See West Virginia Cemeteries for more information

Census Records

For tips on accessing Harrison census records online, see: West Virginia Census.

Historical populations
Census	Pop.	%±
1790	2,080	—
1800	4,848	133.1%
1810	9,958	105.4%
1820	10,932	9.8%
1830	14,722	34.7%
1840	17,669	20.0%
1850	11,728	−33.6%
1860	13,790	17.6%
1870	16,714	21.2%
1880	20,181	20.7%
1890	21,919	8.6%
1900	27,690	26.3%
1910	48,381	74.7%
1920	74,793	54.6%
1930	78,567	5.0%
1940	82,911	5.5%
1950	85,296	2.9%
1960	77,856	−8.7%
1970	73,028	−6.2%
1980	77,710	6.4%
1990	69,371	−10.7%
2000	68,652	−1.0%
2010	69,099	0.7%
Source: "Wikipedia.org".

1785 Enumeration Harrison County Heads of Families - 1785 at U.S. Census Bureau - free. County begins on page 90.

Church Records

Baptist
Early Baptist churches (with years constituted):

1. Simpson's Creek (1775)
2. Buchannon (1786)
3. Good Hope (1806)
4. Olive Branch (1803)
5. Salem (1801)
6. Union (1802)
7. West Fork

Harrison County fell within the bounds of the Union Association.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Ward and Branch Records of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

• Clarksburg

Genealogies

• Criss - Johnston, Aaron Montgomery. Ancestors and Descendants of James and Althea (Loose) Johnston and Allied Families: Bennett, Criss, Gay, Loose, Maitland, Montgomery, Palm and Round. Knoxville, Tenn., 1983. FHL Book 929.273 J644j.
• Cunningham - Newman, Betty Cunningham. Adam and 500 More Cunninghams of the Valley of Virginia, c.1734-c.1800. Bowie, Md.: Heritage Books, Inc., 2000. FHL Book 929.273 C917n.
• Deakins - Ganley, Gladys Dickens. "Some Speculations on a Dickens/Washington Connection," Magazine of Virginia Genealogy, Vol. 27, No. 2 (May 1989):75-81. Digital version at Ancestry ($); FHL Book 975.5 B2vs.
• Dennison - Dennison, Edmund and Karl C. Priest. Baptized on the 4th of July: The Elder Edmund Dennison Story. South Charleston, W. Va.: K.C. Priest, 1995. FHL.
• Hacker - “A Noted Mason Dead: The Demise of William Hacker at a Ripe Old Age,” [Newspaper obituary] (Shelbyville, Ohio), 29 July 1891, reprinted in Hacker’s Creek Journal, Vol. 6, No. 1 (Fall 1987):31-32 - free digital version at Hacker's Creek website.
• Mills - Hackett, John Davis and Kathryn Dickerson Shannon. "Mills Families of Virginia," The Virginia Genealogist, Vol. 35, No. 3 (Jul.-Sep. 1991):215-228; Vol. 35, No. 4 (Oct.-Dec. 1991):284-296; Vol. 36, No. 1 (Jan.-Mar. 1992):34-48; Vol. 36, No. 2 (Apr.-Jun. 1992):109-119. Digital version at American Ancestors ($). FHL Book 975.5 B2vg v. 35 (1991)-v. 36 (1992).
• Prunty - Wassenaar, Ardyth. Memoirs and Geneology of the Prunty Family. Seattle, Wash.: A. Wassenaar, 1984? FHL Book 929.273 P953w.
• Shore - Dennis, Barbara. The Shore Family: Michael Shore and His Descendants. 1971; reprint, Spokane, Wash.: M.B. Shore, 1992. FHL Book 929.273 Sh78d.
• Swisher - Swisher, Robert Edward. The Swisher Family of Harrison and Lewis Counties, West Virginia. Richmond, Va.: Whittet and Shepperson, 1974. FHL Book 929.273 Sw65r.

Land and Property Records

Land and property records can place an ancestor in a particular location, provide economic information, and reveal family relationships. Land records include: deeds, abstracts and indexes, mortgages, leases, grants and land patents.

See West Virginia Land and Property for additional information about early West Virginia land grants. After land was transferred to private ownership, subsequent transactions were usually recorded at the county courthouse and where records are currently housed.

Local Histories

Local histories are available for Harrison County, West Virginia Genealogy. County histories may include biographies, church, school and government history, and military information. For more information about local histories see the wiki page section West Virginia Local Histories.

• History of Harrison County, West Virginia at Ancestry ($)

Maps and Gazetteers

Click a neighboring county
for more resources

• Maps of West Virginia (1617-1995)
• Map of 1850 Virginia and West Virginia

Military Records

Revolutionary War

• A Census of Pensioners for Revolutionary or Military Services: With their Names, Ages, and Places of Residence, as Returned by the Marshalls of the Several Judicial Districts, Under the Act for Taking the Sixth Census]. 1841. Digital versions at U.S. Census Bureau and Google Books et. al. 1967 reprint: FHL Collection 973 X2pc 1840. See Virginia, Western District, Harrison County on page 134.
• Rejected or Suspended Applications for Revolutionary War Pensions. Washington, D.C., 1852. Reprinted by Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1969, and 1991. Reprints include "an Added Index to States." FHL Collection 973 M24ur; digital version at Ancestry ($). Includes veterans from this county; Virginia section begins on page 238.

War of 1812

Harrison County men served in the 11th and 119th Regiments.

Civil War

Regiments. Service men in Harrison served in various regiments. Men often joined a company (within a regiment) that originated in their county. Listed below are companies that were specifically formed in Harrison County:

Union

- 1st Regiment, West Virginia Cavalry

Confederate

- 3rd Regiment, Virginia State Line (Cavalry and Infantry) (Confederate). Company C.

- 20th Regiment, Virginia Cavalry (Confederate). Companies E and F.

- 31st Regiment, Virginia Infantry (Confederate). Company C (Harrison Rifles) presumably was recruited in Harrison County.

Records and histories are available, including:

• West Virginia, Civil War Service Records of Union Soldiers, 1861-1865
• 1861 - 1865 U.S., Confederate Soldiers Compiled Service Records, 1861-1865 at Ancestry— index (free)
• 1861 - 1865 U.S., Union Soldiers Compiled Service Records, 1861-1865 at Ancestry— index (free)

World War II

• 1940-1945 - West Virginia, World War II Draft Registration Cards,1940-1945 at FamilySearch — index and images

Naturalization and Citizenship

• 1814-1991 - West Virginia Naturalization Records, 1814-1991 at FamilySearch — index and images

Probate Records

Online Probate Records

• 1724-1978 West Virginia Wills and Probate Records 1724-1978 at Ancestry ($) — index and images
• 1756-1971 West Virginia Will Books 1756-1971 at FamilySearch — index and images
• Harrison County, West Virginia, will book, 1788-1924

The earliest Harrison County Will Books also include estate inventories and some accountings and settlements of both testate and intestate estates.

There are mistakes in the titles of some of the Will Books listed at the above list of links and in the Family Search Library Catalog's listing of microfilms.

a) The volume entitled Will book, v. 001 1822-1880 is actually Record of Wills 1822-80. It includes disputed or otherwise unrecorded wills and District Court wills. It appears to have been compiled from loose wills, but when it was created is unknown. It is not Will Book 1

b) The volume entitled Will book, v. 002 1788-1794 is actually Will Book 1 (1788-1814) and with it, as microfilmed, Will Book 2 (1814-1818), which begins with image 254 of 497 uploaded images.

Tax Records

How can West Virginia tax list help me?

• 1784-1800 Harrison County, [West] Virginia Lands: 1784-1800. Extracts in the West Virginia Collection at the West Virginia University Library, Morgantown, West Virginia; also available on microfilm at FHL.
• 1784-1824 Harrison County, [West] Virginia Tithables Lists, 1784-1824. Original records, Harrison County Courthouse; also available on microfilm at FHL.
• 1787 Schreiner-Yantis, Netti and Florene Speakman Love. The 1787 Census of Virginia: An Accounting of the Name of Every White Male Tithable Over 21 Years, the Number of White Males Between 16 and 21 Years, the Number of Slaves over 16 and Those Under 16 Years, Together with a Listing of Their Horses, Cattle and Carriages, and Also the Names of All Persons to Whom Ordinary Licenses and Physician's Licenses Were Issued. 3 vols. Springfield, Va.: Genealogical Books in Print, 1987. Online at FamilySearch - free; FHL. The source of this publication is the 1787 personal property tax list. Harrison County is included in Vol. 1.
• 1789 Indexed images of the 1789 Personal Property Tax List of Harrison County, Virginia (now West Virginia) is indexed online, courtesy: Binns Genealogy.
• 1801 Images of the 1801 Personal Property Tax List of Harrison County, Virginia (now West Virginia) are available online, courtesy: Binns Genealogy.
• 1815 Ward, Roger D. 1815 Directory of Virginia Landowners (and Gazetteer). 6 vols. Athens, Georgia: Iberian Pub. Co., 1997-2000. Available at FHL. The source for this publication is the 1815 land tax. Harrison County is included in Vol. 6.

Online West Virginia Tax site

West Virginia real and personal property tax records are managed by the County Assessor in each county. Land and land improvements are considered real property while mobile property is classified as personal property.

Many County Assessors offer an online searchable database, where assessment record searches can be performed by name, account number, year, or mp/parcel number. Where online records are not available, requests for records can be made to the Assessment Office in person, by phone, or in writing.

The search for tax information can start here

Vital Records

• West Virginia Vital Records, 1865 - 1969 (varies) - Includes birth, death, and marriage.

Marriage

• 1780-1970 - West Virginia Marriages, 1780-1970 at FamilySearch — index
• 1801-1962 - West Virginia, United States Marriages at FindMyPast — index $

Death

• 1804-1999 - West Virginia Deaths, 1804-1999 at FamilySearch — index

Research Facilities

Family History Centers

Family History Centers provide one-on-one assistance and free access to premium genealogical websites. In addition, many centers have free how-to genealogy classes.

• For current information about a center near you, go to the Family History Center Map

• Introduction to Family History Centers
  
• Clarksburg West Virginia Family History Center

Libraries

• Central West Virginia Genealogy and Historical Library/Museum
  45 Abbott's Run Road
  Horner, WV 26372-7091
  Phone: 304-269-7091
  Email: hcpd@hackerscreek.com
  Website
  Operated by the Hacker's Creek Pioneer Descendants, Inc.

Societies

• Hackers Creek Pioneers Descendants Inc
  Central West Virginia Genealogy and Historical Library
  45 Abbotts Run Road
  Horner, WV 26372-0056
  Phone: 304-269-7091
  Email: hcpd@hackerscreek.com
  Website
• West Virginia Genealogy Network Community on Google+
  
• West Virginia Genealogy Network Group on Facebook

Websites

• USGenWeb project. May have maps, name indexes, history or other information for this county. Select the state, then the county.
• Cyndi's List for West Virginia
• Harrison County, West Virginia Microfilms at the Library of Virginia
• FamilySearch Catalog - The FamilySearch catalog contains descriptions and access information for all genealogical materials (including books, online materials, microfilm, microfiche, and publications) in their collection.  Use Historical Records to search for specific individuals in genealogical records