Bible Records Digital Collection

Virginia family Bible records are an important source for birth, death, and marriage dates and sometimes other personal and family information, including the births and deaths of enslaved persons. Centralized recording of vital records did not begin in Virginia until 1853, making early Bible records even more valuable.

The Library of Virginia has digitized over 7,000 Bible records in its collection, which grows with new donations regularly. Some early images—usually digitized from photocopies—are less legible than more recent scans due to the poor quality of the paper records. In cases where images are illegible, please contact Archives Reference Services for assistance.

• Entries are searchable by family name. Individual names are seldom indexed. Locations, if known, are included in the descriptions, so locations can be searched in combination with family names to narrow results.
• To narrow by date, use the Publication Dates filter or Advanced Search option on the search results page.
• Using quotes around phrases may return fewer, more relevant results.
• Boolean operators OR, NOT and AND written in ALL CAPS may be used. By default, all search terms will be combined with the AND operator. To exclude terms, use the NOT operator before a term.
• Wildcards can be used to find variant spellings or words. The question mark (?) will match any one character. For instance, "Ols?n" will match "Olsen" or "Olson". The asterisk (*) will match any number of characters (including zero). "Ch*ter" will match "Charter", "Character", and "Chapter", and "Temp*" will match "Temptation", "Temple", and "Temporary".

Collections

Research Guides

Books

The Library of Virginia actively seeks copies of privately held Bible records related to Virginia residents. Donations may be in the form of photocopies, photographs, and digital scans, as well as original pages that have been removed from a Bible. 

Potential donors may contact Special Collections at (804) 692-3703.

Revised January 2024