Local History and Genealogy resources

Learn more about our local community’s history and your own family’s history at the Martinsburg Public Library:

The C.E. Campbell Beall Room (local history and genealogy research room) contains print materials related to history and genealogy in the region including Berkeley, Jefferson, Morgan, and Hampshire Counties in West Virginia, Frederick and Washington Counties in Maryland, and the City of Winchester, Frederick, Loudoun, and Clarke Counties and the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia, including many birth, death, and marriage records, cemetery records, tax and census records, deeds and land records, old Martinsburg city directories, and obituary indexes.     A photocopier machine in the reference department enables users to make copies at the cost of 10 cents per copy.

The Microfilm Collection includes newspapers of Berkeley, Jefferson, and Morgan Counties in West Virginia from 1791 to present. Copies may be printed from a microfilm reader at the cost of 10 cents per copy or page images may be transferred onto your own USB drive at no cost.

Research databases available to library users include:

Ancestry.com (a subscription database which may be used in the research room in the main library and branch libraries in the county); 

HeritageQuest Online (a subscription database which may be used in the library or from home); and West Virginia Vital Research Records (a database of birth, death, and marriage records and actual record images available through the West Virginia Division of Culture and History).

And a knowledgeable library staff can help to direct researchers and provide family research files on different local families.

Submitted by Keith Hammersla