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Correspondence and genealogical notes of John C. Bayles of Morgantown relating to the histories of the Bayles, Vandervort and other Monongalia County families. Also included are materials on the history of West Virginia University buildings and the department of buildings and grounds, compiled by Mr. Bayles; originals and copies of wills, deeds, and land surveys in Monongalia County; an account book for general merchandise, Monongalia County, 1857-1859; newspaper clippings; photographs; a Civil War manuscript poem, "The Third Virginia", and other items.

Correspondence with the American Museum of Natural History, 1934-1952, the American Society of Civil Engineers, the Circumnavigator's Club, 1943-1954, and Richard T. Wiley, the historian, at Elizabeth, Pennsylvania, 1933-1937. Also includes a 34-page travel account of Greece, Crete, and Egypt (1936-1937), materials on Tecumseh (the Shawnee Chief), Monongalia County history, West Virginia University history, and Bayles and Vandervort genealogy. Also includes labeled wood samples from Casa Paraense de M. Matta & Ca. of Brazil. Material covers the years 1781-1955. For more detailed contents information, please see control folder.

Six volumes contain family genealogies as compiled by John C. Bayles in the 1930s and 1940s. There is one volume for each of the following families--Bayles, Breakiron, Davis, Hawker, Reed, and Vandervort--and each volume contains an index for individuals in the related families. Box 1 contains the genealogy of the Frederick and Katherine Breakiron family, originally of Germany, from the 1780s to the 1930s; the Jehu and Eunice Painter Davis family, originally from New Jersey, from the early 19th century to the 1930s; the Owen and Mary Hawker family, originally from Kentucky and Winchester, Virginia, from 1775 to 1940; and the Paul and Neelje Staats Vandervoort family, originally from New Amsterdam (New York), from 1727 to 1950. Box 2 contains the genealogy of the John and Mary Hutchinson Reed family, originally from Ireland, from 1735 to 1944; and the Jesse and Marie Mulrain Bayles family, originally of Hartford County, Maryland, and Winchester, Virginia, from 1730 to 1930. All of the families eventually settled in Monongalia County, Virginia (now West Virginia).

The papers of a locally noted genealogist, Miss Marion E. Tapp, including family and local histories and articles about fraternal historical organizations such as the Daughters of the American Revolution.

Photostat copies of tables tracing the Presbury line from Capt. John Hall (d. ca. 1660) through the families of Bayless, Browne, Colgate, Hall, Little, and Lytle. Also includes two volumes, cataloged in the general library, "The Presbury Family of Maryland and the Ohio Valley." There is also information regarding the Kaminsky and Parry families. Material covers the years 1650-1950.