Virgin Name Study

Profile managers: Jim Patterson [send private message] and One Name Studies WikiTree [send private message]

About the Project

The Virgin Name Study project serves as a collaborative platform to collect information on the Virgin name. The hope is that other researchers like you will join the study to help make it a valuable reference point for other genealogists who are researching or have an interest in the Virgin name.

As a One Name Study, this project is not limited to persons who are related biologically. Individual studies can be used to branch out the research into specific methods and areas of interest, such as geographically (England Virgin's), by time period (18th Century Virgin's), or by topic (Virgin DNA, Virgin Occupations, Virgin Statistics). These studies may also include a number of family branches which have no immediate link with each other. Some researchers may even be motivated to go beyond the profile identification and research stage to compile fully sourced, single-family histories of some of the families they discover through this name study project.

You can find profiles included in this study organized by location under the main name study Virgin Name Study category. Also see the related surnames and surname variants.

How to Join

To join the Virgin Name Study, first start out by browsing our current research pages to see if there is a specific study ongoing that fits your interests. If so, feel free to add your name to the Membership list below, post an introduction comment on the specific team page, and then dive right in!

If a research page does not yet exist for your particular area of interest, please contact the Name Study Coordinator: Jim Patterson for assistance.

... ... ... is a member of the Virgin Name Study Project.

Once you are ready to go, you can also show your project affiliation with the ONS Member Sticker:

Other WikiTree Resources

• List of Virgins on Wikitree
• G2G feed of questions tagged "Virgin".
• Orphaned Virgin profiles on WikiTree.
• Unsourced Virgin profiles on WikiTree.
• Unconnected Virgin profiles on WikiTree.

Research

The Virgin name was first recorded in 1275 in Kent, England. In later centuries people with that surname emigrated to America, Australia and New Zealand.^{[1][2] [3]}

Family Lines in America

Virgin families in America generally originated in England, typically during the Puritan Great Migration. Several of those lines have been identified in WikiTree.

Richard Virgin & Frances Sparks line

The descendants of Richard Virgin (1670-aft.1705) and Frances Sparks (1678-1705) form one significant line of the Virgin descendants. Richard is believed to have been born in Massachusetts so was not himself an immigrant but his ancestry in England is unclear.

As well as descendants with Frances Sparks, Richard is also thought to have a son, also named Richard, born in 1695 and whose mother is called "Mercy, an Indian woman". It's described in the early annals of Providence, Rhode Island.^[4]

A few generations later, Virgin descendants had migrated north to New Hampshire and Maine.. Two sons of Abiel Virgin (1771-1830) took the name farther afield. Ira Virgin (1800-abt.1878) with his wife Abigail Morrill (abt.1812-1888) settled their family in Renfrew County, Canada West^[5] (following Abigail's sister Orpha (Morrill) Caswell (abt.1799-1886) and her husband Benjamin Caswell (abt.1796-1872) who had settled there a few years prior). Ira's brother Jonathan Ambrose Virgin (1808-1881) and his wife Judith Story (Goodwin) Virgin (1811-1891) migrated south to Macon, Georgia.

John Virgin and Elizabeth Dickerson line

John Virgin (abt.1688-abt.1732) was born in Maryland, likely to English-born parents, where he married Elizabeth Dickerson(abt.1692-).

His son Jeremiah Virgin (abt.1724-abt.1791) and his wife Lucy (Dickerson) Virgin (1725-1790) later settled in Kentucky, where many descendants remained. Some also migrated to Ohio.

A genealogy of this line called "Virgin Vicissitudes" was written by Dolores Crumrine Rutherford.^[6]

Family Lines in England

Henry Virgin and Elizabeth Board line

An early instance of the name in WikiTree is headed by Henry Virgin (1762-1836) and Elizabeth Board (abt.1759-1837),

Membership

Related Surnames and Surname Variants

Sources

1. ↑ House of Names - Virgin
2. ↑ Surname DB - Virgin
3. ↑ Surnam.es - Virgin
4. ↑ Book: Providence (R.I.). Record Commissioners, The Early Records of the Town of Providence, V. I-XXI ...
   N.p.: Snow & Farnham, city printers, 1915
   Google Books page 267 (accessed 14 December 2023)
5. ↑ "The Purdys of Carleton County : the genealogical heritage"
   W.A. Pierson, Winchester, TN, 1996
   https://search.worldcat.org/title/319837602 (accessed 30 December 2023)
6. ↑ Book: "Virgin vicissitudes : descendants of John and Elizabeth Dickerson Virgin of Prince George County, Maryland, including families that migrated into Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana and points west"
   https://www.familysearch.org/library/books/records/item/100389-virgin-vicissitudes-descendants-of-john-and-elizabeth-dickerson-virgin-of-prince-george-county-maryland-including-families-that-migrated-into-pennsylvania-kentucky-ohio-indiana-and-points-west?offset=10 (accessed 28 December 2023)
   Identifier: 151934; Creator: Rutherford, Dolores Crumrine; Language: English; Subject: Virgin family; Extent: 14 [i.e. 24] leaves; Page Count: 26; Owning Institution: FamilySearch Library; Publisher Digital: FamilySearch International; Access Level: Public.