mathewslibrary.org

In 1999, the Mathews Memorial Library and the Mathews County Historical Society established a partnership to house their respective collections of archival research materials, memorabilia and books related to Mathews County, the Chesapeake Bay and the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Our historical collection contains personal papers, books, genealogies, documents, manuscripts, maps, architectural surveys, photographs and newspaper clippings. These items contain a wealth of information for researchers and casual browsers.

The two collections are housed in the Chesapeake Room and the Herman Hollerith Archival Room at the Mathews Memorial Library. The collections are cataloged and can be accessed by the public using the Library online public access catalog.

The Chesapeake Room collection is open to all researchers whenever the library is open. Our trained staff is available to introduce first-time users to the collection and to give limited assistance to researchers.

To extend genealogy resources beyond Mathews County, the library subscribes to two online genealogy database services.

Ancestry Library Edition (in-library only) is a broad-based collection of approximately 4,000 databases. There are federal and local census records and images, immigration records and passenger lists, military records, cemetery records, birth, death, and marriage records, a United Kingdom and Ireland collection, and much more. There are also links for "how-to" information for genealogists.

HeritageQuest Online collection consists of six core data sets: U.S. Federal Censuses ,Genealogy and local history books, Periodical Source Index (PERSI), Revolutionary War records, Freedman’s Bank Records and the LexisNexis U.S. Serial Set records.  Enter your Mathews Memorial Library patron barcode to begin searching.