In Early American History, Virginia was a vast area of land.
Many of our earliest ancestors originated in Virginia. To understand the date of the State, and County divisions is extremely important in genealogy research. If your ancestor is said to be in Kentucky in 1790, officially he was in Virginia. Many researchers state Kentucky when in fact it was actually Kentucky County Va or one of the Va. counties formed from it.
Russell County Va was formed in in 1786 from Washington County, Which in turn was formed from Fincastle in 1777,
which became Kentucky.
Thats why genealogy research can be very confusing in the Early Colonial America.
Henrico County was an original Virginia County, Northampton (Accawmack), Warwick (Now, Newport News), York, Elizabeth City, Charles City, James City and the Isle of Wight (Warrosquyoake ) Counties were also Original Virginia Counties. Westmoreland was formed from the Chickacoan District (Northumberland. 1640-48).
A description of this land was "to the south and westward of a line beginning on the Ohio at the mouth of Great Sandy creek and running up the same and the main, or northeasterly, branch thereof to the Great Laurel Ridge of Cumberland Mountain, then south westerly along the said mountain to the line of North Carolina."
1...Washington County Virginia,
2...Montgomery County Virgina,
3...Kentucky County Virgina.
In 1780 Kentucky County Virginia was divided into three Counties, Jefferson County Virginia, Fayette County Virginia, and Lincoln County Virginia
From these the following 9 counties were formed, still in Virginia:
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On 18 December 1789 Va's General Assembly passed an act allowing Ky to apply for statehood and on 1 June 1792, these nine counties became the state of Kentucky.
Only now was these Counties officially in Kentucky. Any research done before this time should be done in Virginia not Kentucky.
The Virginia State Library holds land records for this early time of Kentucky.
Many Times they did not move, the county and state divisions changed and they found themselves living in Different Counties and Different States. Some did not want to be outside of Virginia and they moved back into neighboring counties of the county they lived in before.
The table below will show you how many counties were formed from Floyd County and How Floyd County was formed from Virginia.
Those of you who research ancestors from Virginia and Kentucky realize that Floyd County Kentucky is the start of many of our Genealogy lines.
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To see all the Kentucky Counties and their divisions, you will have to visit the Kentucky genweb site.
Kentucky Formations
By studying the table you can see that Floyd was quite a large county to begin with. Pike County was formed entirely from Floyd County, and 7 other counties were formed from parts of Floyd. If you understand these dates of divisions you can tell when your ancestors moved or were just changed from one county to another.
Lawrence County Kentucky was formed in 1821, from Floyd and Greenup Counties. Twenty Two years after Floyd was formed, and the same year Pike County was formed from Floyd. Pike, Lawrence, and Floyd are connected in many of our research lines.
Content to Live again
When I look into the mirror,
I see Ancestors of long ago,
flowing throw my veins.
Yet noone seems to see
any of this but me
The ghosts I see are lost in time and space
of distant blood and race,
I see them when I look into the mirror
looking back at me as if from a distant shore
they are glad for existence
Just one moment more.
Content to live again
G. Wells Dec. 2003