Record Atlas
5 eras · 1607–2026 · 143 places

Virginia - Tidewater, Piedmont, Valley and Southwest

Jamestown, Richmond, Williamsburg, Norfolk, Alexandria, Roanoke, Accomack. Which empire held this ground in which years — and, the part that matters, which archive that means.

Whose archive this ground was

YearsWho held itWhose archive that means
1607–1624 Virginia Company of London - Jamestown FamilySearch

Jamestown was founded on 14 May 1607 under the first charter of 10 April 1606; the charter of 23 May 1609 extended the colony 'from sea to sea', and the House of Burgesses first met on 30 July 1619.
1624–1776 Colony of Virginia - royal colony FamilySearch

A royal colony from 24 May 1624, when the Virginia Company's charter was revoked; the capital moved from Jamestown to Williamsburg in 1699. The Northern Neck Proprietary was demarcated by the Fairfax Line in 1746.
1776–1861 Commonwealth of Virginia FamilySearch · National Archives Catalog (NARA)

Virginia became a commonwealth on 4 July 1776 and ratified the Constitution on 25 June 1788.
1861–1865 Commonwealth of Virginia - Confederate State FamilySearch · National Archives Catalog (NARA)

The secession convention voted to secede on 17 April 1861 and voters ratified secession on 23 May 1861; Richmond became the Confederate capital in May 1861. The Library of Virginia lists many counties and cities, most in the east of the state, that lost early records to Civil War military activity, courthouse fires and natural disasters, and keeps surviving copies in its Lost Records Localities collection.
1865–2026 Commonwealth of Virginia FamilySearch · National Archives Catalog (NARA) · Chronicling America

Virginia was restored to the Union on 26 January 1870. Statewide recording of births, marriages and deaths was required by an act of 11 April 1853; most localities did not record births and deaths from 1897 to 1911, and recording resumed in 1912.

The rings are approximate — deliberately. They exist to shade which filing system a place fell under, not to adjudicate a border. A place near a ring's edge should be checked against both neighbours.

See the whole span, 1607–2026, on the map →

The map takes a range, and a range that crosses one of the rows above is where records get lost: the family never moved, and the archive on the far side of the handover will tell you it holds nothing.

143 places on this ground

1742 FamilySearch collections reach this ground

Ranked with the regional ones first — a collection for a province is usually a better lead than a national index, though the national index is often where a name is actually written down. A free account opens the images.

…and 1682 more.

All record regions · The map