You may think of Washington D.C., as the denizen of only politicians, lawyers and an army of lobbyists. But the District of Columbia has evolved beyond what you might have seen in politically minded TV shows such as “The West Wing,” “Madam Secretary” or “Designated Survivor.” Once wetlands on the border of Maryland and Virginia, Washington is now a center of US history and culture (in addition to politics). Whether your ancestors lived in the capital city for a lifetime or just a single term of office, this guide will help you find your DC ancestors.
Washington, D.C. Genealogy Research Guide Contents
The area that’s now the District of Columbia was first settled by indigenous tribes, including the Nacostine (Anacostan) and Patawomeck (Potomac), for whom rivers in the region are still named today. Europeans from nearby colonies—notably John Smith, of Jamestown fame—made contact with local tribes in the early 1600s. Many indigenous people died through the spread of diseases from (and warfare with) colonists.
The English Crown, seizing the opportunity, made land grants along the Anacostia and Potomac Rivers in the early 1660s. These became part of Virginia and Maryland colonies, and the nearby cities of Georgetown (Maryland) and Alexandria (Virginia) were settled by Europeans around 1750. After securing independence, the former US colonies formed what proved to be a weak and ineffective national government under the Articles of Confederation. Philadelphia and New York City served as early capitals, but it quickly became clear that the government needed a capital location that was independent from any state.
In 1783, a mob of Revolutionary War veterans blocked Congressmen from leaving their meeting in Independence Hall in Philadelphia. When the Pennsylvania government (with whom Congress shared the space) refused to intervene, Congress had to move to Princeton, N.J. Partially as a result, Article 1, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution allows Congress to create a “District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may … become the Seat of the Government of the United States.”
The location of a permanent US capital was hotly debated by Congress. The present site was selected as a compromise between Northern and Southern states, and codified in the Residence Act of 1790. In exchange for a capital closer to the South, the federal government agreed to assume individual states’ Revolutionary War debts.
George Washington himself selected the site along the Potomac River, and hired French engineer Pierre L’Enfant to plan the city. The District was one of the first major American cities to be built on a grid system. Both Virginia and Maryland contributed land to capital: Alexandria County and part of Fairfax County in Virginia, and parts of Montgomery and Prince George’s Counties in Maryland. The land included two existing cities: the aforementioned Alexandria, Va., and Georgetown, Md. The District was originally administered as two counties (Alexandria in the west and Washington in the east) and three cities (Alexandria, Georgetown and the new city of Washington).
Much of the District (including the White House, the Library of Congress and the original Capitol building) burned in 1814 when the British invaded. The city was reconstructed in the decade that followed, and Thomas Jefferson contributed to the rebuilt Library of Congress from his own volumes.
Land on Virginia’s side of the Potomac River (Arlington County and the city of Alexandria) was given back to that state in 1846, per a vote by Alexandria’s residents. Many important federal sites, including the Pentagon and Arlington National Cemetery, are in Virginia today. On the border between North and South, the capital was sometimes a bargaining chip between competing interests in Congress. As part of Compromise of 1850, the slave trade—but not slavery itself—was abolished in the District.
And, just over 100 miles from the Confederacy’s capital of Richmond, Washington was not far from the front lines of the Civil War. President Abraham Lincoln personally oversaw some military training in the District, and the city was heavily fortified to discourage Confederate advances. The enslaved in the District were freed in 1862—months before the Emancipation Proclamation and years before the 13th Amendment—and it was in the District that President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated just before the war formally ended.
GROWTH IN THE CAPITAL
The governments of Georgetown and Washington merged in 1871. From that year, the whole district has been administered by Congress as one unit. The District was granted territorial status (including a territorial government), but Congress rescinded it three years later. The city’s population grew rapidly throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, especially after New Deal programs increased the size and scope of the federal government. The city has had a particularly large and vibrant African American population since its founding, bolstered by arrivals from the South seeking better prospects post-Civil War and as part of the Great Migration. The 1960s placed DC at the center of both the civil rights movement and civil unrest. During the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his “I have a Dream” speech. Anti-Vietnam War protests were also common that decade, and the city saw significant rioting in 1968 after King’s assassination. Partially as a result of this activist legacy, some DC residents advocated for more representation in government.
(Since 2000, license plates in DC have displayed the protest slogan “End Taxation without Representation.”) The District gained the right to vote in presidential contests in 1964, a non-voting delegate in the House of Representatives in 1971, and a self-elected mayor and city council in 1973. But repeated attempts by Congress to grant the area statehood have failed.
Today, Washington is a major metropolitan area—the sixth-most-populous in the nation. And it’s a must-visit destination for US genealogists, with attractions including the National Archives, the Library of Congress, the Daughters of the American Revolution Library, and a host of historic monuments and memorials.
1608 Englishman John Smith
notes a Nacostine village near modern DC 1783 A mob blocks Congress in the Pennsylvania
statehouse, highlighting the need for an independent
capital
1784-1814
1790 Congress authorizes the
construction of a new permanent capital 1800 The federal government
officially moves
from Philadelphia to
Washington 1814 The British invade
Washington and burn several government buildings, including
the White House
1815-1871
1846 The US government returns Alexandria County (modern Arlington
County and the city
of Alexandria) to Virginia 1850 The slave trade is
abolished in the District; slavery itself remains until 1862 1871 The cities of Washington
and Georgetown
consolidate into a single municipality
1872-2021
1964 Residents of Washington
are allowed to vote in
presidential elections
for the first time 2021 A Congressional bill to grant Washington statehood passes
the House of Representatives,
but fails to get out of
committee in the Senate
The District first required vital registration in 1874, though compliance was uneven until about 1915. Marriages were first documented earlier (from about 1811) The Vital Records Division holds birth and death certificates from 1874 to the present. Privacy laws restrict access to birth records less than 125 years old and death records less than 75 years. Find records available to the public through the DC archives’ Digital Collections or request copies through the Office of Public Records.
MARRIAGE RECORDS
Find copies of marriage records at the District’s Superior Court Marriage Bureau. Certificates from 1870 to 1920 are also available from the Office of Public Records, with an index from 1811 to 1870 . FamilySearch, Ancestry.com and MyHeritage each have birth, marriage and death indexes f or various years. FamilySearch has a separate collection of imaged death records.
Note that many early records of residents in what is now DC would be held by Maryland or Virginia, depending on which state the land was once a part of. The Virginia portion’s pre-1846 records, for example, were returned to that state along with the land.
Residents of the soon-to-be District of Columbia would have appeared in the 1790 and 1800 censuses as part of either Maryland or Virginia. (Virginia records for those years have been lost.) The District wasn’t enumerated in its own right until 1810. Unfortunately, records from that year are lost.
Decennial censuses for DC are thus available for 1820 through 1880 and 1900 to 1950. (1890 census records were lost for most places in the United States.) Find them on FamilySearch, Ancestry.com and MyHeritage. The District took its own censuses in various years throughout the 19th century; records are held by the Maryland State Archives according to the FamilySearch Wiki, but don’t seem to have been digitized. Special police censuses served a similar purpose through the early 20th century, though they didn’t contain as many details. These were published as part of the annual “Report of the Commissioner
of the District of Columbia,” available through the DC Digital Library.
The DC archives maintain a collection of deed and land transfer index cards. Originals are held by the recorder of deeds, with digital images available from 1921.
The Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System transcribes some 10,000 records of DC residents who served the Union. Ancestry.com and Fold3 have indexed WWII draft registration cards.
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