God Bless America 
to the Morgan County, West Virginia
site for the WVGenWeb
Project, part of the USGenWeb Project,
a massive undertaking to provide free resources for genealogists. Morgan County was formed in 1820 from parts
of Hampshire and Berkeley Counties and named in honor of General Daniel Morgan, prominent soldier of the
American Revolutionary War.
The people in the court house have moved their offices to the former parking lot behind the courthouse. With regard to records, this is from an article written by Kate Shunney, which appeared in the August 16, 2006, edition of the Morgan Messenger — "Deeds, liens, wills, marriage, birth and death certificates pulled from the fire-proof vault in the County Clerk’s office just hours after the courthouse fire was extinguished have already been transported to Ft. Worth, Texas for preservation. Because some of the documents had suffered water damage, BMS Catastrophic will freeze-dry the pages to prevent further deterioration of the material.
"County Clerk Debbie Kesecker said microfilm copies of some older documents have been stored for several years in a vault in Pennsylvania. She said her office should have their deed books and records back by the end of August" (I haven't heard if the records have been returned — I would suggest you call if you plan on visiting the courthouse to go through the record books — 304-258-8547). It was noted the office had a laptop computer for visitors to look for records already been entered into the county’s computer system.
The article went on to say that Kesecker was directing people to the state’s office of Vital Statistics for certified copies of birth, marriage or death certificates.
With regard to information that might not be on the county's computer system
(if you plan to visit Morgan County), there are some other options.
The Morgan County Historical and Genealogical
Society — records include many family histories, deeds, wills, census records, obituaries,
marriage records, cemetery records, death records,
graveyard history, etc. These records (and the Society) are in the
Public Library, 105 Congress Street, Berkeley
Springs. Please scroll down the page for more information on the society.
For official copies of birth and death records, contact the West Virginia State Vital Records Office, Vital Registration, Division of Health office in Charleston, West Virginia. A note on their webpage indicates the cost of these has gone up to $10 each and will be given only to immediate family members.
Please browse through the updated pages here, particularly the Miscellaneous Research Links page, to find other options.
And please, if you have written to the Morgan County County Clerk for any records, or if you were planning to write or to visit, be patient. I'm sure the folks at the courthouse will have their hands full for quite awhile.
Page UPDATED 9 February 2007
Please pardon our dust!
Please do not email me to do research for you. I don't live in Morgan County or even close to it (though my
paternal ancestors are from Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia (Morgan, Jefferson and Berkeley counties),
so I am not able to go to the courthouse or visit the library there or even recommend places to stay.
Resources within your own area could include the Family History Centers; most public records are on
microfilm from the Family Hisotry Center Salt Lake City Library and can be "borrowed" for a small fee.
Look through the pages here. There are already a number of links listed that will take you to the courthouse,
libraries, etc. and I will be including additional sites for gathering information, either through the
internet or by writing to agencies. Please check back with us; changes will be taking place.
Thanks for your patience.
Menu
This site is in the process of being updated with new links and information.
Hello Morgan County researchers. My name is Marilyn Gouge
and I am the new volunteer coordinator of this site. All of the GenWeb pages are maintained by volunteers who
know how important it is to find information when you are not close to the areas of your ancestors.
In the coming weeks I will be updating broken links, contacting researchers to ensure the addresses given on
the Surnames, Lookups, and Morgan County webpages within this site are as current as they can be. If you have
a website you previously listed and that site has changed locations, please notify me. Also, if you see your
name on the Surnames Page and when you click on it, the incorrect address comes up, please
notify me.
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Join a mailing list or browse and post messages on the boards |
On Line Copies of Public Records |
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Pictures of Morgan County People and Places |
Morgan County Courthouse |
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Folks willing to do look ups for you |
Cacapon River |
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Lots of helpful information and links |
of Old Frederick & Hampshire Counties, Virginia by Wilmer L. Kerns |
in West Virginia, 1762-1870 Berkeley & Morgan Counties |
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Obits from 1997-present |
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Transcribed from copy of actual records NOTE not yet proofread. |
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this page being updated |
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A Ridenour Family History by Thomas Ridenour |
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Will be updated soon |
this page being updated |
See Morgan County Communities |
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Updated 13 August 2006 |
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How To articles by a certified genealogist — Myra Vanderpool Gormley |
by John Wyle |
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| Mr. Fred Widmyer, President Box 52 Berkeley Springs, West Virginia 25411 |
The MCH&GS is open for anyone who has a desire to
help preserve the history of Morgan County and the surrounding areas and is willing to help with the research
done for its members and others who request help. Annual dues are $5.00 per person or $7.50 per couple.
Meetings are held during the summer months, usually May to October, at the Morgan County Library.
There is no charge for people to go to the library to do their own research. The
society will do research for those unable to go in person for $15.00 per hour with a minimum charge of $15.00.
The charge for paper copies is $.25 per page of copied material plus shipping and handling charges based
on current postal rates.
Hours of operation:
Monday and Wednesday — 9 a.m. to noon
Tuesday and Thursday — 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
1st Saturday of the month — 9 a.m. to noon
2nd Tuesday of the month — 5-8 p.m.
Friday — Call for an appointment:
Mr & Mrs Clyde Edwards, 304-258-2259 or Betty Ditto, 304-258-1251, or E-mail the
society.
Thanks, Joy, for the information on the MCH&GS.
Please remember these folks are mostly volunteers and their time is precious. — Don't ask for vague
information such as, 'please look up everything you have on Smith.' Try to be specific about the information
you need (full names and probable dates).
You might also find the folks at the Berkeley County Library helpful in finding information that predates the formation of Morgan County in 1820. The Berkeley County Library's Genealogy Section
County Clerk Morgan County Commission 202 Fairfax St. Suite 100 Berkeley Springs, WV 25411 304-258-8547 |
Sources Available for Lookup
As law-abiding citizens, we ask that no one violate copyright laws. Some publishers may have stated limits on what/how much can be in a look-up...our volunteers will let you know what limits there are, if any. Finally, be sure to thank our volunteers; without them our work and yours would be much more tedious and time consuming!
NOTE: Please put MORGAN COUNTY LOOK-UP in your subject...some of these people are on many mailing lists and volunteer to do look-ups for other areas — your request could get deleted if you do not put a meaningful message in the subject area.
References for Berkeley County are included here because Morgan was formed from Berkeley County. Information within parentheses generally reference the author or publisher of the book.
If YOU own any resource material and can return the favor by doing lookups for others, give me a holler.
Thanks to all our volunteers!
| Source Name | Person to contact |
| Morgan County, West Virginia Birth Records 1865-1904 (Turner) | Staci
Porter Angel Rogers Harry Grossman |
| Morgan County Death Records 1865-1903 (Davis) | Nettie
Grace
Harry Grossman Sherry Neff Staci Porter |
| Morgan County West Virginia Obituaries, Volume IV (Davis, Allemong, Mellott) | Harry Grossman |
| Morgan County West Virginia Obituaries (Allemong and Davis); red book | Harry Grossman |
| Morgan County West Virginia Obituaries 1936-1953; also 1907-1909 (Genealogical Society) | Staci
Porter Harry Grossman |
| Obituaries Berkeley County Virginia (West Virginia) 1791-1855 (Historical Society) — because it includes the area of Morgan county for years 1791-1820 | Harry Grossman |
| Graveyard History of Morgan County (Virginia )West Virginia (Genealogical Society) | Harry Grossman Sherry Neff Nettie Grace |
| Morgan County West Virginia Graveyard Book | Staci Porter |
| Morgan County West Virginia Marriage Records 1820-1865 (Genealogical Society) | Harry Grossman Sherry Neff Staci Porter |
| Morgan County West Virginia Marriage Records 1865-1903 (Turner) | Sherry
Neff Harry Grossman Staci Porter |
| Marriage Records of Berkeley County 1781-1854 (Keesecker); because these include the area of Morgan County for years 1781-1820 | Harry Grossman |
| Berkeley County (West) Virginia Deeds and Wills Abstracts, Deed Books 1-5 and Will Books 1-3 (Shuck); because it includes the area of Morgan County for the years 1772-1820 | Harry Grossman |
| West Virginia Estate Settlements to 1850 (Johnston) for Berkeley County; because these include the area of Morgan County for the years 1772-1820 | Harry Grossman |
| A Ridenour Family History by Thomas Ridenour | Thomas Ridenour |
| 1820, 1850, 1860, 1870, 1880 (Marsh), 1900 (Davis) Morgan County Census | Harry Grossman |
| Index to the 1810 Census of Virginia (Bentley); because it includes surnames for the area of Berkeley and Hampshire counties that became Morgan County in 1820. | Harry Grossman |
| Index to the 1820 Census of Virginia (Feldin); because it includes surnames for the first Morgan County Census | Harry Grossman |
| 1850 census | Staci
Porter Sherry Neff |
| 1860 census | Staci
Porter Sherry Neff |
| 1870 census | Staci
Porter Sherry Neff |
| 1880 Census of West Virginia vol 13 — Hampshire, Morgan, Berkeley and Jefferson counties ONLY | Staci Porter |
| Social Security Death Index (SSDI) Infobase (free database) | Ancestry Site |
Morgan County Researchers' Web Sites
Charlene Smith — http://www.familytreemaker.com/users/s/m/i/Charlene-Smith/index.html
Pat Asher — http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~pasher/
Billy Yoho — http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~yoho/
If you have a web-site with Genealogy Information from Morgan County please notify
me so I can add your link
to the list.
Meet the Family! Here are some folks' web sites who are doing research in Morgan County:
Morgan County Neighbors
Berkeley
County, West Virginia (east)
Hampshire County, West Virginia (southwest)
Frederick
County, Virginia (southeast)
Allegany County,
Maryland (northwest)
Washington County, Maryland (north)
contact site manager
Copyright: © 2006-2007 Marilyn Gouge
Copyright: © 1998-2003 Charlene T. Smith
All Rights Reserved.
last update: 9 February 2007