Clay County, [West] Virginia Births and Deaths, 1858-1860

Clay County is located in the center of the state of West Virginia today and was created by an act of the General Assembly of Virginia on March 29, 1858. It was named in honor of Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky. Clay was a native Virginian by birth himself. These records of Births and Deaths are a part of Virginia's records when they began requesting each county to have a book on hand to records these events on a volunteer basis in 1853. Someone would come into the county office and record the Births and/or the Deaths in a family over an eighteen month period for each year. The year's books were not closed until after June so that each family would have plenty of time to record the events. These records are taken from the original ones found in the Virginia State Archives. When one reads the West Virginia copy of these records, one has to be very careful as there are differences in the two different lists. One is the original (Virginia) and the other is a copy made sometime after West Virginia became a state in the early 1860s. It is interesting to note that some of the records were given by the grandparents which will list three generations in one entry. There are over 1,400 names in the index.

James L. Douthat

2010, 8.5" x 11", paper, full name index, 34 pp.

ISBN: 9780788481284

101E-WV0102