Dictionary of Virginia Biography Search

Search results include links to online biographies and citations to biographies that are only in print volumes.

• The default setting is an alphabetical list of all biographies (print and online) by surname. The Keyword Search filter will return results with all mentions of a person’s name. To search for an individual’s biography, use the last name, first name format. For example, if you are searching for the biography of Harry Flood Byrd, type “Byrd, Harry Flood” into the Keyword Search box.
• Use the filters to refine your search. They can be used individually or in combination.
• The Quick Lists filter provides alphabetical lists of African Americans, Native Americans, and Women who appear in the online and print biographies.

Note: The DVB is a work in progress. As a historical reference work, no living people are included. For example, many but not all of Virginia’s deceased governors appear in the DVB and no living governors are included.

Using the Keyword Search filter searches all of the biography text and each biography's list of cited sources for entries that are currently online. For example, searching for "Daily Dispatch" will return names of editors and journalists associated with the newspaper as well as newspaper issues cited in an entry.

• Use quotation marks to broaden or narrow your search terms.
• For example, searching for "convention of" will return members of all of Virginia’s state constitutional and other conventions for whom there is a biography. Searching for "convention of 1776" will return all the members of that convention with a biography as well as other entries in which the convention is mentioned.

The Quick Lists filter will return lists of all African Americans, Native Americans, and Women in the DVB. Refine a search using Keyword Search box. Examples:

• To find suffragists in the DVB, select women in the Quick Lists. Refine using the keyword Search box to search for "woman suffrage."
• To find African American members of the House of Delegates, select African Americans in the Quick Lists. Refine using the keyword Search box to search for "house of delegates." Further refine your search using the Residence and/or Time Period filters.

Filter by Virginia cities and counties. A person may be listed in more than one location.

Applying a selected time period provides results for when people were most active in their respective fields. A person may be listed in more than one time period.