I've read a number of blog posts recently about the West Virginia Archives online records, and it almost seems like folks are discovering it for the first time. I've been using it for a little over three years now - in fact I wrote about it in November of 2006. While the West Virginia Archives had online documents for at least three years, the recent update now cover all state counties.
Most of the time pure luck is the main driver in my greatest genealogy discoveries, but I found the West Virginia Archives by simply following the evidence. Some of our family stories indicated my Italian grandfather had a number of half sisters. With this information, I checked the Ellis Island database and found a Sarafina Aggazio who came from the same town in Italy as my grandfather. The manifest also listed Sarafina's mother as Rosa and this was the same name as my grandfather's step mother. The immigration manifest also had Sarafina's final destination as Wheeling WV.
Once armed with the above information, it didn't take me long to find the West Virginia Archives. The first records I found three years ago were the death certificates of a daughter and son of Sarafina Aggazio. Once I saw Sarafina's name on those certificates, I knew I found my Great Aunt.
The snow ball kept rolling because a few online searches lead me to a name of a living descendant of Sarafina. I wrote an old fashion letter and then one day I got a phone call from Sarafina's youngest daughter which lead to a photo and information exchange.
Today I found the death certificate of Sarafina's husband (Antonio Fragale).
And this all happened courtesy of the West Virgina Archives.
