Census records can be found through the U.S. Census Bureau, and blank census forms can be found at Ancestry.com.

Census information has been collected by the federal government every 10 years since 1790, the year of the first census.  For privacy reasons, census records are kept private for 72 years.  The National Archives has more information about census records. Census records may be accessed online through the Library's subscriptions to Heritage Quest or Ancestry Library Edition.

The 1860 and 1870 Censuses for Augusta County are also searchable online through the Valley of the Shadow. The Staunton Public Library has census records for Augusta County covering 1810-1930 on microfilm. These are located in the Reference area, which includes two microfilm readers and printers.  The Augusta County Clerk’s Office has the original Augusta County census books for 1850, 1860 and 1870. The earliest Census of Virginia is 1787, which was created from the personal property lists of the 1780s.

The Staunton Public Library has microfilm copies of Staunton newspapers from the late 1700s to the present. Because there is no index, it is helpful to have the date of death for the individual you are researching.  For people who have died in the last 50 years, and who received any Social Security benefits, you may be able to pinpoint their date of death using the Social Security Death Index. The Augusta County Genealogical Society has obituaries on file as well.

The Staunton Public Library’s subscription to Ancestry can only be accessed in the Library. The Library of Virginia has a number of research resources that can be accessed remotely. For a complete list of online resources, see here https://www.ci.staunton.va.us/departments/library/online-resources 

See collections at the Library of Virginia.

Click here to get a library card at the Library of Virginia.

Free remote access to select Ancestry.com materials from the Library of Virginia collections is available to Virginia residents via Ancestry for Virginians, a Find It Virginia (finditva.com) resource.