The Jamestown Biographies Project is the result of years of research into the records of settlers who arrived in Virginia during the first eighteen years of the colony's existence (1607-1624). Conducting research both in the United States and abroad, APVA Preservation Virginia has sought to shed some light on the lives of the first wave of pioneering colonists who were so crucial to the existence of the United States.

Example Colonist: Jeffrey Abbott

Using a variety of sources that include census, church, and tax records from both Virginia and Europe, the Project has pieced together information about colonists that includes when they arrived, where they came from, where they settled, what their occupation was, and who their parents and children were. The record can be very scant for some settlers and very rich for others. For some settlers the Project may only have their name and when they arrived, for others we have several paragraphs of information and may know everything from what ship they arrived in to how many acres of land they owned in Virginia.

The Project hopes to be a valuable tool to historians, genealogists and other researchers hoping to learn about the colonists who crossed the Atlantic to settle Jamestown and other settlements such as Flowerdew Hundred, Charles City, Archer's Hope and Chaplin's Choice. For those looking to use the Jamestown Biographies Project as a starting point for further research on a particular settler, a complete bibliography is provided with each entry.

Please remember to note your username and password as you will need both of them to access the biography information once you have purchased it.

"A mapp of Virginia discovered to ye hills..." from the Library of Congress' American Memory collection

Work continues on the Project and the information that we have on the settlers can grow and change as new sources are discovered. Patrons of the Project who purchase the information of a particular settler will be e-mailed when the information for him or her changes. Once you purchase a settler's information your access to the record will be permanent -- you can log back in at a later time and review the information, no matter how much additional information is added to the record later. Each record costs $4.95.

You will not receive the colonist information in the mail; you will acccess your purchased information on this website with your username and password.

Here is a list of fields that are included in the Jamestown Biographies Project database. For some colonists the project will have information for many of these fields, and for others the Project may only have two or three. The number of fields with information in them is listed along with the name of the colonist so researchers can decide if the amount of information provided is worth the purchase. To get started, click on the "Biographies How-To" button to the right.