The Augusta County Genealogical Society got its start with a small advertisement in both the Staunton News Leader and the Waynesboro News Virginian.Four individuals held the first meeting at the Augusta County Library in Fishersville, Virginia in October of 1996.  By April of 1997 there were 23 members. The Society has continued to grow with the ever increasing interest of Americans in finding their ancestors.  Individual dues in 1996 were $12.00 per calendar year.  In 2006 they were raised to $15.00.  In January of 2006, the ACGS became a non-stock Corporation.  In January of 2007, the ACGS was recognized as a 501 (C) (3) public charity with donations being tax deductible. Today’s membership is approximately 120 members from all over the United States.

 

Augusta County was formed in 1738 from Orange County.  For seven years Orange County maintained the court records but as the population of the county grew, a courthouse was built in Staunton, and the first court was held in 1745.  At the time of its formation the western borders of the county were unknown—it was primarily unexplored frontier territory extending as far west as the Mississippi River.

 

Therefore, early Augusta County records are comprised of court records of present-day Augusta, Rockbridge, Rockingham, and Botetourt Counties, as well as most of present-day southwestern Virginia and West Virginia.

 

As early as 1720 the first settlers had begun arriving from Pennsylvania, Maryland and eastern Virginia.  Many Germans and Scots-Irish traveled down the Great Wagon Road from Philadelphia through Lancaster and York to the Shenandoah Valley.  Most German speakers were from the German Palatinate, west of the Rhine River, and Switzerland, whose families had immigrated to the port of Philadelphia.  They were Lutheran, Brethren and Reformed.  A larger number of settlers were Scots-Irish Presbyterians from Northern Ireland.  Many of the early settlers purchased land from William Beverley, owner of an 112,000-acre land grant from the colonial government.  As the population of Augusta County grew, new counties were carved out of Augusta.