Virginia Genealogy Trails welcomes you to Charles City County Genealogy and History Volunteers Dedicated to Free Genealogy This Site is Available for Adoption! Our goal is to help you track your ancestors through time by transcribing genealogical and historical data and placing it online for the free use of all researchers. We're looking for folks who share our dedication to putting data online and are interested in helping this website become a useful research tool. If you would like to join our group and become the host of this county, please visit our Volunteer Page and contact Kim. (A desire to transcribe data and basic webpage skills are necessary) We regret that we have no time to perform personal research for anybody. All data we come across will be added to this site, so please keep checking back here. If you would like to be notified of when our Virginia sites are updated, Subscribe to our Mailing Lists. Virginia is covered on the Northeast States List County History [source: wikipedia.org] Charles Cittie was one of four "boroughs" or "incorporations" created by the Virginia Company in 1619. It was named for Prince Charles, second son of King James I of England, who became the Duke of Wales and heir apparent after the death of his older brother Henry in 1612. He later became King Charles I of England after his father's death. The Virginia Company lost its charter in 1624 under King James I, and Virginia became a royal colony. Charles City Shire was formed in 1634 in the iVrginia Colony by order of the King. Its name was changed to Charles City County in 1643, and it is considered one the five original shires in Virginia which are still extant in essentially the same political entity (county) as they were originally formed in 1634.   The original central city of the county was Charles City Point, which was in an area south of the James River at the confluence of the Appomattox River. The first Charles City County courthouses were located along the James River at Westover and at City Point. The latter's name was shortened from Charles City Point. All of the original area of Charles City County south of the James River was severed beginning in 1703 to form Prince George and several other counties. The incorporated town of City Point in Prince George County was annexed by the independent city of Hopewell in 1923.   North of the river, the area remained Charles City County. During the nineteenth century, numerous crossroad communities developed to serve the religious, educational and mercantile needs of the citizenry of rural Charles City County. Crossroad communities, such as Adkins Store, Cedar Grove, Binns Hall, Parrish Hill, Ruthville and Wayside, typically included a store, church and school. In modern times, there is actually no "Charles City", or any centralized city or town, in the county. Charles City Court House, which has a Charles City postal address, is the focal point of government. The building which serves as the courthouse was constructed in the 1730s and is one of only five courthouses in America that have been in continuous use for judicial purposes since before the Revolutionary War. Charles City County features some of the larger and older of the extant James River plantations along State Route 5. All are privately owned. Some James River plantations, listed from west to east, include Shirley Plantation, Edgewood Plantation and Harrison's Mill, Berkeley Plantation, Westover Plantation, Belle Air Plantation, Piney Grove at Southall's Plantation, North Bend Plantation, Sherwood Forest Plantation. Other plantations, not open to the public, include, Evelynton Plantation, Oak Hill, and Greenway Plantation. > William Henry Harrison, the ninth president of the United States, was born at Berkeley Plantation on Feb.9, 1773. John Tyler, the tenth president, was born at Greenway Plantation in 1790 and bought the nearby Sherwood Plantation in 1842. Sherwood Plantation has been a continuous residence of the Tyler descendants since then. There are no incorporated towns in Charles City County, but the following unincorporated communities are located in the county: > * Binns Hall * Holdcroft * Ruthville * Sandy Point Online Data Biographies Births Cemeteries Census and Tax Lists Church Histories / Records County Records Death Records Family Bibles County History Marriages Military Miscellaneous Data Newspaper Data Obituaries Slavery Records Wills/Probate Records Website Updates: Jan 2013 Heus/Ammons Marriage Stagg/Manning Marriage Taliaferro/Marshall Marriage Taylor/Fauntleroy Marriage Vaden/Stubblefield Marriage Warren/Christiana Marriage Nov 2012 World War II Honor List 1820 Census - Heads of Households Oct 2012 1890 Veteran's Census - Chickahominy 1890 Veteran's Census - Harrison Lewis/Langhorne Marriage May 2012 Mrs. Hester Backhurst Obituary Samuel Alexander Clark Obituary Apr 2012 1782 Land Tax List Mar 2012 Edward A Palmer Biography Search our Sites Surrounding Counties * New Kent County - north * James City County - east * Surry County - southeast * Prince George County - south * Chesterfield County - southwest * Henrico County - west Visit our National Site Visit our VA State Site Copyright © Genealogy Trails All data on this website is Copyright by Genealogy Trails with full rights reserved for original submitters.