Pittsylvania County was divided from Halifax County in 1767 (however, some land records located in the Pittsylvania County Courthouse date back to 1737). Records for the area that later became Pittsylvania County for the years 1752 to 1767 can be found at the Halifax County Clerk's Office. Records for the years 1745 to 1752 can be found in Lunenburg County's records.
In 1840, Danville, which had been a town within Pittsylvania County, became a city with its own courthouse and records. (Chatham, the Pittsylvania County county seat, remained and still remains in the confines of Pittsylvania County.)
There are four main places to do genealogy research concerning Pittsylvania County:
There are three main places in Danville:
Danville's records dated prior to 1840 are, in general, located in the Pittsylvania County Clerk's Office.
Partial birth records are available at the area clerk's offices (Pittsylvania County and Danville, respectively) for the years 1853 to 1896. More complete sets of records are found in microfilm (unindexed, but at least loosely listed by year, area, and alphabetical order) at the Virginia/North Carolina Piedmont Genealogical Society. Birth records were not kept from 1897 until June 1912. After June 1912, records were kept by the Virginia Office of Vital Records, not by the individual counties and localities. (The Virginia Office of Vital Records also has copies of the birth records from 1853 to 1896; consult Virginia Office of Vital Records website for information on ordering copies from them.)
Available cemetery records are by no means complete; however, books of cemetery listings can be found at the Virginia/North Carolina Piedmont Genealogical Society, the Danville library, and the Chatham branch of the Pittsylvania County Library. In addition, the Library of Virginia has some cemetery records, both online and in their collections in Richmond.
Census records are found at the area libraries and the Virginia/North Carolina Piedmont Genealogical Society in various forms: microfilm, book (print-outs and indexes), and on computer. Pittsylvania County's census records for 1790, 1800, and 1810 are missing (probably destroyed in the War of 1812), but efforts have been made to reconstruct partial listings based on tax records for landowners.
Court cases for the years 1767 to present are available at the Pittsylvania County Clerk's Office, and from 1840 to present in Danville. (However, criminal court cases are incomplete in Pittsylvania County.)
Partial death records are available at the area clerk's offices (Pittsylvania County and Danville, respectively) for the years 1853 to 1896. More complete death record information is found on microfilm (unindexed, but at least loosely listed by year, area, and alphabetical order) at the Virginia/North Carolina Piedmont Genealogical Society. Death records were not kept from 1897 until June 1912. After June 1912, records were kept by the Virginia Office of Vital Records, not by the individual counties and localities. (The Virginia Office of Vital Records also has copies of the death records from 1853 to 1896; consult the Virginia Office of Vital Records website for information on ordering copies from them.)
Some records concerning suspicious deaths, deaths due to car accidents, etc. for the early 1900's can be found at the Danville Clerk's Office. (These reports are often rather graphic.)
Land transactions and surveys are available from 1737 to present at the Pittsylvania County Clerk's Office, and from 1840 to present at the Danville Clerk's Office.
Pittsylvania County newspapers dating from the mid-1930's to present can be found on microfilm at the Chatham branch of the Pittsylvania County library, and in scrapbooks at the Star-Tribune office in Chatham. Unfortunately, earlier newspapers for Pittsylvania County and Chatham are for the most part non-existant (though some are found in private collections). Some Halifax County and Danville newspapers do have some Pittsylvania County information.
Microfilms of Danville newspapers from the 1900's can be found at the research desk downstairs in the Danville Public Library. Microfilms of miscellaneous Danville, Halifax County, and other newspapers from the 1820's to circa 1900 can be found on microfilm at the Virginia/North Carolina Piedmont Genealogical Society.
Unindexed, loosely chronological Camden parish records are available at the Pittsylvania County Clerk's Office. A copy of the Antrim Parish records is available at area libraries. (The dates covered range from the mid-1700's to the mid-1800's.) Other church records are scattered and/or non-existant.
Slave birth records are found (though probably incomplete) for the years 1853 to 1865 at area clerk's offices (however, the children are listed under the owner's name, not the names of the parents). Census records and tax records may name slaves; wills and other legal documents may also contain information.
The Pittsylvania County Clerk's Office has a book recording names and physical descriptions of freed slaves (and/or African-Americans born free).
Tithable lists are available at the Pittsylvania County Clerk's Office for some (not all) years from 1767 to the 1790's. (Certain years include information on the names of male children of property owners and list names of slaves.) Tithables are NOT alphabetical, but are by year.
An incomplete set of tax records (from 1790's to present) is available at the Pittsylvania County Some of the Pittsylvania County tax records are also available on microfilm at the Virginia/North Carolina Piedmont Genealogical Society.
Danville's early (pre-1840) land tax records are located at the Pittsylvania County Clerk's Office. Later records can be found at the Danville Clerk's Office.
Copyright © 2005-2012 Sarah E. Mitchell