Genealogy Research Resources

What you need to know about accessing Burton Historical Collection at Detroit Public Library

In an earlier entry, this column reported on several resources available for online African-American research in Virginia. Many more resources are now available, some becoming so just in the past three months since that report, necessitating another visit to the subject.

This guide is designed to help you find out what state census records are available. We have limited the scope of this listing to include only those major sources that were generally designed by the state (or pre-state) government as a census of inhabitants and are readily accessible. Many sources exist that are not technically census records, but may assist you in locating a family. Tax lists, rent roles, voter lists, poll lists, etc. are among these. A few of them have been included.

Virginia Genealogy: A Guide to Genealogical Resources at the University of Virginia, compiled by Jean L. Cooper, rev. ed. 2005-2009. E-mail: jlc5f at virginia dot edu