The Families of Central West Virginia
We are so pleased you dropped in to visit our site.
In the late 1960s my parents, James and Janet Lockhart, became interested in family history and finding where their families originated. I remember as a young teen traveling with my family over miles county roads in much of West Virginia on the hunt for graveyards lost to time and nature. Their interest turned into a life long quest spanning fifty plus years and quickly outgrew just their own families.
James and Janet were known as a resource throughout the genealogy community in central West Virginia, attending many of the Genealogy fairs each year, producing books on hundreds of families. In 2013 they were among the recipients of the West Virginia History Heroes Award
Their Genealogy work is now available online for searching and use. What you will find here is the results of their efforts over those years plus what I have added since 2019. - Gerry Lockhart
We have 570,000+ names in our database centered mostly around central West Virginia.(if you are statistics minded take a look at this page: Site Statistics Check back often as I continue their work, adding additional information at least a few times a week.
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The goal is to try to get as many of the families of Central West Virginia entered and documented as possible. The research is based on official records as much as possible - Birth, Death, Marriage, Census, etc records. This is about the families and folks that grew up together. It is NOT based on DNA connections which can tell a completely different story. The West Virginia counties with the most entries included: Tyler, Harrison, Marion, Taylor, Barbour, Doddridge, Pleasants, Wood, Ritchie, Wirt, Jackson, Roane, Calhoun, Gilmer, Lewis, Upshur, Randolph, Webster, Braxton, Clay, Nicholas, Kanawha. Of course, there are we have some in the other counties, along with other states... but our focus is WV.
We are the chosen. In each family there is one who seems called to find the ancestors – to put flesh on their bones and make them live again, to tell the family story and to feel that somehow they know and approve.
To me, doing genealogy is not a cold gathering of facts but, instead, breathing life into all who have gone before.
We are the story tellers of the tribe. All tribes have one.
We have been called by our genes. Those who have gone before cry out to us: tell our story. So we do. In finding them, we somehow find ourselves. How many graves have I stood before now and cried? I have lost count. How many times have I told the ancestors you have a wonderful family you would be proud of us? How many times have I walked up to a grave and felt somehow there was love there for me?
I cannot say.
It goes beyond just documenting facts. It goes to who am I and why do I do the things I do. It goes to seeing a cemetery about to be lost forever to weeds and indifference and saying I can’t let this happen. The bones here are bones of my bone and flesh of my flesh. It goes to doing something about it. It goes to pride in what our ancestors were able to accomplish. How they contributed to what we are today. It goes to respecting their hardships and losses, their never giving in or giving up, their resoluteness to go on and build a life for their family. It goes to deep pride that they fought to make and keep us a Nation.
It goes to a deep and immense understanding that they were doing it for us. That we might be born who we are. That we might remember them. So we do. With love and caring and scribing each fact of their existence, because we are them and they are us. So, as a scribe is called, I tell the story of my family. It is up to that one called in the next generation to answer the call and take their place in the long line of family storytellers.
That is why I do genealogy, and that is what calls those young and old to step up and put flesh on the bones.
Author unknown
The top 200 surnames with the most entries. However, we have over 20,000 surnames listed, so if yours is not in the below list, that doesn't mean we don't have it.
We make every effort to document our research. If you have something you would like to add, please contact us.
