County Past
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York County, Virginia

Historic newspapers, landmarks, and county history layers for genealogists and local historians.

—newspaper titles
—digitized titles
13historic places
—earliest paper
1634formed
70,045pop. 2020
12cemeteries
1CW battlefields

At a glance

Summary

The National Register of Historic Places includes 13 listed properties in the county, first listed in 1969; 1 is also National Historic Landmark. Most listings are in or near Yorktown, Williamsburg, Lackay.

Summary generated automatically from the source data on this page.

Newspapers

Library of Congress

Newspaper directory data for Virginia is not yet loaded on this site. Browse York titles at the Library of Congress.

National Register of Historic Places

NPS NRHP

4 of 13 listings mapped; some locations are restricted by NPS to protect sensitive sites.

13 listed properties
PropertyCityTypeListed
Bruton Parish Poorhouse Archeological SiteWilliamsburgSite1982
Bryan ManorWilliamsburgSite1978
Gooch, William, Tomb and York Village Archeological SiteYorktownSite1974
Gooch, William, Tomb and York Village Archeological Site (Boundary Decrease)YorktownSite1999
Grace ChurchYorktownBuilding1970
KiskiackLackayBuilding1969
Oak Grove Baptist Church Historic DistrictWilliamsburgDistrict2023
Old Custom HouseYorktownBuilding1999
Porto BelloWilliamsburgBuilding1973
SAVANNAH (nuclear ship) NHLNewport NewsStructure1982
Sessions-Pope-Sheild HouseYorktownBuilding2003
Whitaker's Mill Archeological ComplexWilliamsburgDistrict2008
Yorktown WrecksYorktownSite1973

Source: National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Property links open NRHP nomination files at the National Archives.

County formation

Newberry AHCB

York was formed in 1634 (1634-12-31) from unknown / original county.

[1634] CHARLES RIVER (renamed YORK in 1643) created as one of the eight original shires.

Source: Newberry Library, Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

Population by decade

Census

York County population from 1790 to 2020 (Census historical series).

70k37k3,231179018001840188019101920196020002020
17901800182018401860188019001920194019501960198020002020
5,2333,2314,3844,7204,9497,3497,4828,0468,85711,75021,58335,46356,29770,045

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau historical county population (Forstall 1790–1990) and public-domain / CC0 county population series through 2020.

Cemeteries & historical places

USGS GNIS

12 cemeteries and 0 historical populated places (ghost towns / former settlements) recorded in USGS GNIS for this county.

Cemeteries — 12 of 12 listed
NameLatLon
Carys Cemetery37.1242-76.41042
Cheesecake Cemetery37.24736-76.62023
French Cemetery37.20597-76.52745
Hopkins Cemetery37.14509-76.42137
Hopson Gravesite37.12708-76.433
Jackson Post Cemetery37.22764-76.5819
Lee Cemetery37.24097-76.56412
New Bethel Baptist Church Cemetery37.11599-76.43194
Shiloh Cemetery37.22541-76.50745
Smith Cemetery37.12819-76.43856
Yorktown National Cemetery37.22536-76.50557
Zion Cemetery37.19458-76.43328

Source: USGS Geographic Names Information System (public domain). Cemeteries from the 2021 NationalFile archive; historical places from GNIS HistoricalFeatures topical extract.

Civil War battlefields nearby

ABPP

American Battlefield Protection Program (ABPP) Civil War study areas near this county.

BattlefieldStudy acresDist.Site ID
Big Bethel88617.3 kmVA003

Source: NPS American Battlefield Protection Program Civil War Study Areas (public ArcGIS feature service).

Historical markers

HMdb link

Marker text and photos from the Historical Marker Database (HMdb) are not embedded here. HMdb allows non-commercial reuse with attribution, but commercial/compensated use needs written permission; this is a commercial site, so we only link out.

Search HMdb for York County, Virginia

Terms: hmdb.org/copyright.asp. Linking is encouraged by HMdb.