Genealogy Info
The Alleghany Highlands Regional Library has some excellent resources for local genealogical research! With a large selection of items for reference and circulation in our Virginia Collection, it is quite easy to spend all day browsing the fascinating history of Alleghany County and the surrounding areas. Included in our collections are local newspaper archives, family histories, city and county directories, high school annuals, magazines, census records, court records, legal documents, maps, and much more!
With your library card, you can access the Heritage Quest database, which offers searchable census records, books, PERCI, Revolutionary War records, Freedman's Bank, the U.S. Serial Set, and more. This database contains information from over 28,000 family histories, local histories and other books, contains over 2 million periodical records, millions of images and digitized pages. It is easy to search and available for use on your home computer.
Ancestry Library Edition is your portal for Ancestry.com's popular collection of more than 7,000 databases and 200 billion images, including immigration records, censuses, vital records, family histories, court and legal documents, directories, photos and maps.
The Library maintains a copy of archives for many local newspapers on microfilm, including the Virginian Review (previously the Covington Virginian), the Daily Review (previously the Clifton Forge Review), the Covington Pioneer, the Alleghany Tribune, and the Alleghany Sentinel. Also available on microfilm are local census records, Alleghany County Court records, and the Smith-Riffe Collection. Available on microfiche are Civilian Conservation Corps Camp Papers, 1870 Virginia Census Index, Virginia Marriage records (up to 1800's), William and Mary Quarterly archives, AGLL-Catalog Census Records, Virginia Wills before 1799 (for Amherst, Bedford, Campbell, Louden, Prince William, and Rockbridge Counties), and some family genealogical histories.
Archives of some Virginia magazines are available, such as the William and Mary Quarterly, the Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Magazine of Virginia Genealogy, and the Quarterly Bulletin of the Archeological Society of Virginia. These can all be found in the Virginia Reference section of the Library. Also available are hundreds of books about local history, families, landmarks, cemeteries, and events. Come to the Library and see what else we have to offer to help trace your family history or just for personal interest!