Kentucky County Virginia
Has anyone done any research of Kentucky before statehood?....I have seen people using Mason, Kentucky as a location. Kentucky did not become a state until 1792. These dates for location is in 1782. With that said......this area would technically be Kentucky County Virginia. I know these records can be very hard to find. Does any one have an idea of where to look and if it has been digitized?
Answers
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@caddelcori1 caddelcori1 This doesnt answer your question but the site https://kentuckyancestors.org/researchingkygenealogy/ has some great information about where to look for certain information during certain time periods for certain locations because there were a lot of changes to the counties etc. hope it helps:)
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Yes, my ancestors were in Kentucky and purchased land before Kentucky became a state. The land records are located in Richmond VA. Web site below on some history of Kentucky before it was Kentucky. Also, somewhere, I have information on maps which show the progression of counties in Kentucky which start with the original Virginia counties. If you are interested, I can try to dig that up. And, inteerestingly enough, Kentucky was not the name of the county. I believe it was originally part of a massive Augusta County, VA which went all the way to the Mississippi River.
https://www.sos.ky.gov/admin/land/non-military/Pages/default.aspx
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Gail
My family is from Mason county kentucky I have my 4th great grandfather William Allison is estimated to be born in Va around 1790..
What becomes interesting is that the family stayed in the county until 1925.
I think that he may have been born in the same place....just ends up being two different states....
This is my brick wall.
I have even started doing research of all Allison's on 1790 census.....some are in Kentucky and I haven't found any Allison's in Virginia at that time.
looking at the map could be helpful
Cori
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Cori, there is much history you have to wade through.
Kentucky was established as a separate state June 1, 1792, and Mason County Virginia became Mason County Kentucky.
Mason county Virginia was established in 1788 from Burbon County Virginia.
Burbon County Virginia was established in 1785 from Fayette County Virginia.
Fayette County Virginia was established in 1780 from Kentucke (not a typo) County Virginia.
Kentucke County Virginia was established in 1776 from Augusta County Virginia.
Augusta County Virginia was established in 1738 from Orange County Virginia.
Orange county Virginia was established in 1734 from Spotsylvania County, Virginia.
Spotsylvania County, Virginia was established in 1721 from 3 other counties. Yada Yada Yada and so it goes on.
All of the above is from Wikipedia pages by the way. Anything the Allison family may have done during any of the above time periods needs to be researched in the appropriate county / state / colony identity. I have a lot of colonial connections to Augusta County VA in branches of my family, and have purchased a couple of the volumes of indexed records which go back to the 1600's. There are quite a few Allisons listed. For example, I found a William Allison who received 92 acres of land in 1773 from his father John Allison and wife Lucy who, themselves, patented 245 acres 12 May 1770. Unfortunately the index doesn't indicate where the land is, just that it is Deed book 18, page 435. But, if you know of a John and Lucy Allison, here is a little bit of information! Because of the date, it could be what is now Mason County, Kentucky, and this William Allison could be your William Allison, but it could also be his father. I don't know how old someone had to be to own land that is gifted to them.
By the way, much of 1790 Census records for Virginia and Kentucky were burned by the British in the war of 1812. That doesn't help.
Have fun and good luck!
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check out the animation county formation maps of both Virginia and Kentucky
http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~george/countyformations/virginiaformationmaps.html
http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~george/countyformations/kentuckyformationmaps.html
@Virginia Genealogy Research
@Kentucky Genealogy Research
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Dennis, while these maps are somewhat helpful, and I know they took a lot of research, you can't zoom in or see any geographic detail. Most of the time we are interested in a very small community and there is no way to tell where it is on some of those maps.
By far the most helpful type of map is found at the URL below. It has nothing to do with Kentucky/Virginia, or even the US for that matter but is a fantastic example of blending old and new. It is a map of ancestral German towns in current Ukraine and Russia imposed on a modern Google map. The German occupants were killed / sent to gulags in WW II so these are ghost towns as far as German heritage goes. The current occupants are ethnically Russian, Ukraine, etc. On the map below you can see the ancestral locations with both original German settlement names and current Russian/Ukraine names. You can zoom in using all Google map functionality. Several of these German colonies were inhabited by husband's ancestors before they were able to come to the US. What is really neat is there are hand drawn maps showing the family plat locations and when I zoom in on the settlement locations in the link below I can vividly see the old streets still in existence today that are on the hand drawn maps. And I can see where some of my husband's ancestors may have lived.
This kind of technology applied to the evolution of US counties and states starting at the beginning (1600's) and ending up with today would be a Godsend! I have seen one such nationwide map showing the evolution of the railroads, but not counties.
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@Gail S Watson perhaps you may be able to find something helpful here: https://www.thoughtco.com/historical-map-overlays-for-google-1422162
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I agree - when dealing with a specific community and trying to determine the county.
But understanding the evolution of the counties in my opinion is 3/4 of the battle.
if you see a record for the Yancey family in County X - and then it just disappears - this all makes sense when you see the evolution of the county boundaries - and then you know what other counties to look for.
This has been the real key to much of my research in these counties in these areas - to know which county to look in and when - rarely do I know what individual communtiy they lived in - if they even lived in a community (which most didn't) - but I can track them at the county level - where most of the records are located - and if they all of a sudden disappear - then I look for county boundary changes around that date - and I have clues to look at other counties that emerged.
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Mason County Kentucky - pre Kentucky statehood
The Tax List for Mason County do exit starting 1790
https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/156148?availability=Family%20History%20Library
Deeds for Mason County starting 1789
https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/433608?availability=Family%20History%20Library
Mason County Court Orders starting 1789
https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/437589?availability=Family%20History%20Library
Mason County Probate records starting 1791
https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/423334?availability=Family%20History%20Library
Mason County Marriage Records starting 1789
https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/434162?availability=Family%20History%20Library
All Mason County Records
Maysville Index of Deeds
https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/821268?availability=Family%20History%20Library
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