All genealogists have their pet peeves, one of mine is the incorrect designation of West Virginia before it existed. One might think that just as frequently you would see a designation of Virginia after a certain location had become West Virginia, but it’s just not seen in the reverse.
West Virginia split from Virginia and became the 35th state on June 20, 1863. As many states in the Eastern United States Virginia is made up of numerous small counties, today there are 95 counties in Virginia and 55 counties in West Virginia. In comparison a state like Nevada in the Western United Sates has 16 counties. Nevada is more than double the size of Virginia today which has 42,775 square miles vs. Nevada’s 110,567 square miles.
The Virginia counties that became West Virginia are: Barbour, Berkeley, Boone, Braxton, Brooke, Cabell, Calhoun, Clay, Doddridge, Fayette, Gilmer, Grant, Greenbrier, Hampshire, Hancock, Hardy, Harrison, Jackson, Jefferson, Kanawha, Lewis, Lincoln, Logan, McDowell, Marion, Marshall, Mason, Mercer, Mineral, Mingo, Monongalia, Monroe, Morgan, Nicholas, Ohio, Pendleton, Pleasants, Pocahontas, Preston, Putnam, Raleigh, Randolph, Ritchie, Roane, Summers, Taylor, Tucker, Tyler, Upshur, Wayne, Webster, Wetzel, Wirt, Wood and Wyoming.
For an example of why this matters, let’s take the case of William Henry King, born 5 May 1849 in Mason County, is in your tree. Many trees record his birth incorrectly as West Virginia, likely in part due to his own misrepresentation in at least the 1880 Texas census where he lists his birth state as “West Virginia”. In a contemporary time, those alive would have known that West Virginia did not exist in 1849 and hence his birth state was actually Virginia.
But today if you asked your average person when did West Virginia become a state it is unlikely that you will get the correct answer; the exact date of the formation of West Virginia is just not top of the historical dates most people readily know. Let us say something is starting their family tree search and does not realize the state they should actually be researching in is Virginia; this may cause them a great deal of frustration or to give up altogether. Not only is it that designation is historically correct, but the number of “William King”s in the general area, at the time, make accuracy even more important. Many of the William Kings in Virginia / West Virginia are also related to one another.
Counties That Became West Virginia
The black line represents the split between Virginia and the newly formed West Virginia. The Maps of Us website is very useful when determining counties to research in by year. When it appears that a family has moved counties from one census year to another, you might discovery that it is actually the county line that has moved and your ancestors stayed exactly in the same location. To see an example of counties changing, take a look at the changes to the state of Mississippi, specifically 1833 to 1836 demonstrates a good example of how counties changed.
As a genealogist and a lover of historical accuracy I beg you to enter the location of birth, marriage, death as it existed at the time and now where it exists today, if not because it’s my personal pet peeve, but for future family historians who will thank you for the frustration you save them!