Online Sources for Research

   The following online sources I use to find information about our ancestry. A word of caution:  when you are reading a book authored by this or that person, check the validity of the information against primary sources (birth/death/marriage information).  I have reviewed the books by James Miller, Johnston, Charles Silas Hatcher and Oren Frederic Morton.  Their information was sometimes incorrect and subsequent authors used this same material to write their own books. For example, the story that President Hayes's wife was a daughter of Jennie Pack.  This is false.  She was the daughter of Dr. James Webb and Maria Cook Webb of Chillicothe, Ohio. Trefousse's biography of President Hayes does not mention the name Pack and I did a search via the Hayes Presidential Library and nothing surfaced.


Excellent sources for PRIMARY materials:


WV Archive Online.

1.  Go to the main page.
2.  Scroll down to "Explore Archives and History...", at the bottom of the page
3.  Click on Births, Deaths, and Marriages (database)
4.  You might need to try different spellings of an ancestor's name. The people who constructed the database tried their best to read the handwriting on records, but they didn't always read/ interpret the names correctly.  Also, try putting in different information in the fields to get the results out that you need.


Library of Virginia Online


1.  Go to the "West Virginia" page
2.  Go to "Land Office Patents and Grants" heading.
3.  Click on "Land Office Patents and Grants database".
4.  You can try the tab "Images and Indexes".  I have more luck finding online materials here.  You can also try the full catalog tab for a broader search.
Unfortunately, not all Va's records are downloadable or online, BUT some wills and land grants have been uploaded.  We must lobby for VA to upload their materials to the web!  With a host of info on early American settlers on their hands, I think it is their civic duty.


Good source for SECONDARY materials: 

Google Books
Go to Google Books, then type in the name of an early settler ancestor you are looking for.  I've had luck doing this.  Sometimes you can only review certain pages, but many early books existed before modern copyright law (or not renewed, etc. under such) so the full text is accessible.

First Settlers and Other Families (part two) I - P (in the process of being updated)

Again, this is a short list of family information.  There are other families mentioned in the early settler records, so if I do not mention a family's names it just means I have little or no information.




Kissinger


  This family came to the Greenbrier and Monroe area around 1770.  Mathias, Andrew, Sr., and Andrew Jr. were involved in the battle at Point Pleasant.  Mathias's heirs:  Andrew, Mathias, Mary, Jacob, Susanna, Michael, Elizabeth, and Anne who intermarried with the Mann, Maddy, Ballard, Parsons, Fulton, and Halstead families.




Mann


  From what many researches say, the Mann family is German (originally Monn).  I've stitched together information from numerous sources.  There's lots more on this family.

   George Bernhardt Mann immigrated from Germany and settled first in Pennsylvania.

   William Mann was a Sergeant at Fort Young in 1759 in Covington, VA.  He was a hunter and trader.  His wife's name was Jean, and Children:  Moses, Thomas William, John, Catie, Jenny, Sarah, Alice, and Archibald.

    John Mann, Jr. a son of John Jacob Mann and grandson of George B. Mann acquired land on the James, Jackson and Cowpasture Rivers from 1750 to 1778.  Later he moved to Monroe County and settled in the area of Indian Creek (present day Summers County).

   His wife's name was Mary Kessinger.




    


Pence


   Jacob Pence was from Rockingham County and was in the Augusta Co. VA militia during the R.W.  He lived in Monroe County and married Elizabeth Trust.  They had three sons:  Henry, David and Moses.  One son married Nancy Stodghhill.