To determine the books, microforms, and manuscripts the library has on Williamsburg or James City County, search the online catalog, by subject williamsburg va or james city county va
As you would expect, there are numerous printed genealogies and manuscript collections involving local families. Search the online catalog by family name: stubbs family.
Local families represented in Swem Library’s collection include: Tucker, Coleman, Southall, Galt, Tyler, Barraud, Stubbs, and Blair.
Special Collections has an early directory for the Williamsburg area for 1898, which lists residents and their addresses. It also has telephone directories for 1922, 1928-1939.
The Virginia Gazette, 1736-1780, which was published in Williamsburg, is indexed for the years 1736-1780 and has existed (with gaps) to the present.
Among the records from James City County are:
Williamsburg Historic Records Association
The Williamsburg Historic Records Association (WHRA) is an organization dedicated to collecting and preserving records of post-colonial Williamsburg, James City County, and York County. It gives all its material to the Special Collections Division of the College of William and Mary's Swem Library. There the documents are processed, kept in a climate-controlled environment, and made available to researchers.
WHRA has gathered thousands of diversified documents, ranging from a single photo to large collections of personal papers and organizational records. Especially important are 19th and 20th-century letters, diaries, wills, deeds, photographs, books, maps, newspaper clippings, scrap books, pamphlets, medical records, programs of events, church and school records, membership lists of local organizations, phone books and school year books.
If you have such records and would like to donate them to the library, please write to: Williamsburg Historic Records Association, P.O. Box 1708, Williamsburg, VA 23187.
An annual meeting is held each spring to discuss acquisitions and to hear a speaker on local history.
Local Organizations With Records at Swem Library
Bruton Parish Church
Swem Library is the official depository for records from Bruton Parish Church, Williamsburg. Housed in Special Collections, this is an open collection with records to date as follows:
Parish Registers (baptisms, marriages, confirmations, burials):
1662-1797
1868-1965Vestry Minutes:
1827-1913
March 11, 1913-December 8, 1937
January 17, 1938-December 22, 1944
January 7, 1945-July 2, 1956
September 15, 1956-January 22, 1962
January 4, 1963-December 15, 1964
January 29, 1965-December 14, 1970Marriages:
March 6, 1936-December 14, 1946...and through 1965
June 9, 1969-March 9, 1980
October 1982-May 31, 1986Historical Sketch of Bruton Church, Williamsburg (VA REF F234 .W7 G6)
Cedar Grove Cemetery (Williamsburg, Va.)
Virginia DAR Genealogical Records Committee Report: Cedar Grove Cemetery, Williamsburg, Virginia. (VA REF F234 .W7 C42 1992)
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