Tazewell County is located on the West Virginia border of southwestern Virginia. It was created on December 20, 1799 from lands taken out of Wythe and Russell Counties. It was named for Henry Tazewell, a United States Senator from Virginia. Delegate Littleton Waller Tazewell originally opposed the formation of the new county but when Simon Cotterel, who drew up the bill to form the county, changed his proposed name for the area to Tazewell in honor of Littleton's father Henry who had died months earlier, the bill passed. These birth records are full of information giving the name of the child, birth date, sex and race as well as the location of the birth. In addition the names of the parent and/or owner in the case of slaves is given with the addition of who informed the clerk of the birth. Since the recording of the births at this time was volunteer in nature, this latter is important. The location of the birth is important as to the creeks, mountains, etc. At this time in history Tazewell County covered a great deal more territory than it does today. At the time period from 1837 until 1858, it included Buchanan, parts of Bland, as well as McDowell, and parts of Mercer in what was to become West Virginia after 1863. When you read the areas of the births, you begin to see how far reaching Tazewell County was at the time of these records. This is why there are hundreds of births in the very early period of the records. James L. Douthat (?), 2013, 8.5" x 11", paper, full name index, map of county up to 1858, 129 pp.ISBN: 9780788486296 101E-VA0720
