Collections

Start Over Date range 1785 Level Collection

Davidson Family Papers, 1773/1938 0.01 Linear Foot

Originals and copies of papers, 1804-1928, of the Davidson family of Frederick County, Va. Includes correspondence from Samuel Davidson in Sacramento, California to his father, William Davidson and brother David Davidson describing California in the Gold Rush era. The papers also include a deed, 5 April 1773, signed by Thomas Lord Fairfax to Thomas Talbot for land in Frederick County, Va. and genealogical material concerning the Davidson family.

  1. College of William and Mary

Davis-Meranda Family of Clark County, Ohio, Genealogy, 1770/1850 .01 Linear Feet 8 leaves (1 folder)

Collection of genealogical information regarding the Davis family of Clark County, Ohio in the late 1700s to the mid 1800s. Beginning with Robert Davis, the collection follows the bloodline through his daughter, Mercy (Davis) Meranda, to where the family eventually moved to in Missouri and later, Indiana.

  1. West Virginia and Regional History Center

D. Boston Stewart Papers, 1782/1919, bulk 1862/1906 0.25 Linear Feet Summary: 2 1/2 in. (1 document case, approximately 90 items)

Stewart, David Boston
David Boston Stewart (1826-1915), a farmer from Monongalia County, West Virginia, who served with the 48th Virginia Infantry and the 20th Virginia Cavalry during the Civil War and was a member of the Virginia Legislature from 1863 to 1864. Collection primarily consists of letters written to D.B. Stewart between 1862 and 1864 and between 1894 and 1906 that concern Stewart's time as a Confederate prisoner of war during the Civil War, and his personal life in the 1890s and early 1900s.
  1. West Virginia and Regional History Center

Deakins Family Papers, 1778/1925 0.25 Linear Feet Summary: 3 in. (1 document case, 2 1/2 in.); (1 oversize folder, 1/2 in.)

Deakins family

Additional Deakins family papers, consisting of correspondence, bond of conveyance, deeds, surveys and plats. [ALS] to Colonel Francis Deakin from John Compton, 1793, relative to surveys made by John Compton in 1792; bond of conveyance for land in Randolph County owned by Deakins heirs, 1809; five deeds for land owned by the Deakins family in Randolph and Preston counties W. Va., 1808-1885; 1848 deed from Francis Deakins to Northwestern Turnpike Co.; seven surveys and plats for lands in Preston, Tucker, Harrison and Upshur counties, largely owned by the Deakins family, 1788-1881.

  1. West Virginia and Regional History Center

Deakins Family Papers and Surveying Compass, 1778/1925 2.5 Linear Feet 2 ft. 6 1/4 in. (5 document cases, 5 in. each); (1 large flat storage box, 5 in.); (1 oversize folder, 1/4 in.)

Deakins family
Includes records from several generations of the Deakins family of Montgomery County, Maryland and north central West Virginia. William (1742-1798) and Francis (1739-1804) Deakins, among the first generation, were active as land speculators after the American Revolution, applying their skills as surveyors to leverage acquisition of western lands. From 1778 their activities are documented through deeds, agreements, surveys, plats, surveyors' field books, court papers, and letters related to land purchased in Harrison, Monongalia, Preston, Randolph, Tucker, and Upshur counties. Other papers concern Leonard M. Deakins (1747-1824) and his descendants. Of special significance in the collection is the compass used by Francis Deakins to survey the "Deakins Line" in 1787-1788, a north-south line separating western Maryland from (West) Virginia.
  1. West Virginia and Regional History Center

Dickson Family Papers, 1769/1924 2.8 Cubic Feet 2 boxes

Dickson family (Greenbrier County, W. Va.)
The papers consist largely of land, property, and goods transaction receipts and documents of each of the four generations of the Dickson Family, who originally settled in what is now Greenbrier County, Virginia (now West Virginia) in the 1770s. Certificates, oaths, correspondence, deeds, and a diary are included in Joseph Dickson's papers, along with several sale documents for enslaved people from the late 1700s and early 1800s. Much of the land and goods and many of the enslaved people were exchanged with neighbors and others in the area.
  1. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Dille Family of Monongalia County (W.Va.), Financial, Legal, and Military Papers, 1785/1896, bulk 1816/1875 0.25 Linear Feet 2 1/2 in. (1 document case, 2 1/2 in.); (1 oversize folder)

Dawson, Dille, and Evans families
Miscellaneous nineteenth-century financial, legal, and military materials chiefly related to the Dille, Dawson, and Evans families of Morgantown, Virginia (now West Virginia). Papers chiefly contain surveys of and land grants for Monongalia County, Virginia, from 1792 to 1875 (many of these are oversize), including plats sold to O.H. Dille in 1839 and 1875. There is also an oversized plan of Morgantown, Virginia, 1785-1824, showing deeds along the Monongahela River and Decker's Creek. Military materials consist of an 1819 pension for John Fairchild, killed during the War of 1812; declarations about military service during the Revolutionary War written in 1832; and a May 1864 letter from R. W. Dawson regarding the Union 10th Army Corps at Bermuda Hundred during the Civil War. Miscellaneous items include checks from Morgantown banks, 1873-1874; receipts, 1816-1874; scattered Dille genealogical information, undated; materials from the Morgantown Presbyterian Church, 1896-1897; and undated photographs.
  1. West Virginia and Regional History Center

Dismal Swamp Collection, 1763/1928 0.01 Linear Foot

Transcripts collected circa 1922 by Earl Gregg Swem in connection with his editing of William Byrd's Description of the Dismal Swamp and a Proposal to Drain the Swamp. Includes land entries made in the Dismal Swamp; petitions, 1763-1785, to the Governor and Council; and papers, 1764-1785, of George Washington concerning the proposed canal in the Dismal Swamp.

  1. College of William and Mary

Doddridge Family Manuscript, 1745/1857 0.01 Linear Feet Summary: 1/4 in. (1 folder)

Doddridge family

A manuscript copy and two typed copies of the will of William Parsons, Randolph County, dated January 11, 1828. Two typed copies of information on the families of Philip Doddridge (1773-1832) and John Doddridge (1745-1791).

  1. West Virginia and Regional History Center

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