With the arrival of English and Scots-Irish settlers came West Virginia's early dominant religions. Many families of English origin were Quakers and the Scots-Irish were Presbyterians. Both religions were well established by 1740, and they were followed by Baptists who settled in Berkeley County in 1743 and a Methodist circuit in Berkeley and Jefferson counties in 1778. For a complete discussion of early church records, see Virginia-Church Records.
Since colonial times dozens of religious groups have established congregations in West Virginia including the following: Baptist, West Virginia Baptist Historical Society, P.O. Box 1019, Parkersburg, West Virginia 26101; Methodist, Methodist Historical Society, West Virginia Wesleyan College, Annie M. Pfeiffer Library, College Avenue, Buckhannon, West Virginia 26201; Roman Catholic, Diocese of Wheeling/Charleston, P.O. Box 230, Wheeling, West Virginia 26003; and United Brethren, Historical Library, Church of the Brethren, 1451 Dundee Avenue, Elgin, Illinois 60120, denominations.
Many religious groups have deposited their records at the West Virginia and Regional History Collection. Church record inventories compiled as part of the Historical Records Survey are available there and at the FHL.
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The most extensive collection of West Virginia tombstone inscriptions was compiled by the Historical Records Survey. Available at the West Virginia and Regional History Collection and on microfilm at the FHL, the collection includes inscriptions through 1939-40. The DAR and others have published volumes of cemetery records.
Cemetery records and gravestone inscriptions are a rich source of information for family historians. Cemetery and other sources of information associated with death include:
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- Biographical works
- Burial permits
- Church burial registers
- Cemetery records (often several different kinds are kept)
- Cemetery indexes (often compiled by genealogical societies)
- Cemetery sextons’ records
- Cemetery deed and plot registers
- Death certificates
- Death indexes
- Family bibles
- Family burial plots
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- Funeral director’s records
- Grave opening orders
- Gravestone (monument) inscriptions
- Military records
- Monuments and memorials
- Necrologies
- Newspaper death notices
- Obituaries
- Probate records
- Published death records
- Religious records
- Transcriptions of cemetery inscriptions
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