By: Edgar Sims, Pub. 1952 & 1956, Reprinted 2020, 886 pages, Index, ISBN #0-89308-652-5.

This book is a MUST have and should be in everyones collection who is researching family members within the states of West Virginia and Virginia. These Land Grants were made by Lord Fairfax prior to the creation of the Virginia Land Office in 1779, as well as those issued by the Commonwealth of Virginia for land now located in West Virginia, and by the State of West Virginia under its First Constitution. This book is a comprehensive collection of pre-1900 land records in West Virginia which was created out of Virginia in 1863. There are more than 50,000 entries with each containing the name of the grantee, amount of acreage, location and date of grant, and the grant book and page numbers. Sims meticulously examined each record to ensure that the spellings of the names of grantees, location, and descriptions of tracts were accurate, and that any variations of spellings of grantees’ names were also indexed or noted.

Records are listed for Barbour, Berkeley, Boone, Braxton, Brooke, Cabell, Calhoun, Clay, Doddridge, Fayette, Gilmer, Grant, Greenbrier, Hampshire, Hancock, Hardy, Harrison, Jackson, Jefferson, Kanawha, Lewis, Logan, Marion, Marshall, Mason, McDowell, Mercer, Monongalia, Monroe, Morgan, Nicholas, Ohio, Pendleton, Pleasants, Pocahontas, Preston, Putnam, Raleigh, Randolph, Ritchie, Roane, Taylor, Tucker, Tyler, Uphur, Wayne, Webster, Wetzel, Wirt, Wood, and Wyoming counties, West Virginia, as well as for the portions of Augusta, Bath, Botetourt, Frederick, Montgomery, Russell, Tazewell, and Wythe counties, Virginia, that were used in the formation of West Virginia. Special Note: This reprint includes the 16-page Supplement of 1956 covering grants of Fincastle, Giles, and Rockingham counties.