Hardy County WV Genealogy – Access Genealogy

West Virginia Naturalization Records

Naturalization to become a U.S. citizen was a two-part process: the Declaration of Intent to Naturalize, or First Papers, and the Naturalization Record (including the Naturalization Petition), or Final Papers. The First Papers were normally filed five years before the Final Papers because of the five-year residency requirement to become a citizen. No centralized files existed before 1906. In 1906 federal forms replaced the various formats that had been used by the various courts. Copies were sent to the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), creating a central file for naturalization papers. The INS is now known as the U.S. Citizenship … Read more

The Wilson Family of West Virginia

This brief history has been gleaned from old family records, correspondence with other members, and histories of Ritchie, Barbour, Harrison and Randolph Counties, West Virginia. The first known ancestor was David Wilson, who was born in Scotland about 1650; he had a son David, born about 1685, who was forced to flee from Scotland to Ireland owing to his being on the losing side in the Scotch Rebellion of 1715. His son William (b. Nov. 19, 1722; d. June 12, 1801) came to America about 1736; married Elizabeth Blackburn, also of Scotch-Irish descent, about 1746, and settled on Trout Run near Moorefield, Hardy County, W. Va. The Land Office at Richmond shows that he and his sons patented many tracts of land in what is now Hampshire, Hardy, and Grant Counties. Nothing further is known of him as to where he lived and died.

The Switzers in Virginia

“The Switzer family is of German and Swiss origin and was founded in America by three brothers, John, Valentine and Nicholas, sons of John Switzer, who never came to America. About 1770 the three brothers settled in Hardy, then Hampshire ‘County.” FROM “THE HISTORY OF BARBOUR COUNTY” Cornelia Switzer-Burkholder, a daughter of Daniel Morgan Switzer, a son of Valentine’ Switzer, a son of Nicholas Switzer, immigrant, who obtained in her life time much information concerning the genealogy of the Switzer family, and at her death left with Frank C. Switzer, of Harrisonburg, Va., certain records and correspondence, made the following … Read more