Surname Saturday: Via

The Via sur­name is one of my more unique sur­names. Since I reg­u­lar­ly research Smith, Jones, John­son, Miller, Hill, and Gra­ham, it’s good to have the occa­sion­al rare sur­name. My Vias descend through Mica­jah Via, Sr. (cir­ca 1742 — cir­ca 1810) and Phillipi Bur­nett, and their son Jonathan Via, Sr. and his wife Cather­ine O’Buck (or O’Bock).

George Allen Via, the son of Jonathan Sr. and Cather­ine O’Buck Via, was my 4th great grand­fa­ther. He and his wife Mary Eliz­a­beth Lane (mar­ried 2 Dec 1839) had a dozen or so chil­dren (I’m still work­ing out that gen­er­a­tion). Two of their sons Thomas David Via and John Robert Via, served in the Con­fed­er­ate army. John was in Com­pa­ny A (2nd Com­pa­ny), 12th Batal­lion, Vir­ginia Light Artillery Reg­i­ment (along with 6 oth­er Vias).

Thomas (who is my 3rd great grand­fa­ther) first served in Com­pa­ny ‘I,’ 7th Reg­i­ment Vir­ginia Vol­un­teers (along with two oth­er Via), but after being cap­tured at Gettysburg,and impris­oned at Point Look­out Prison, he joined the 1st US Vol­un­teer Infantry, like­ly as a mat­ter of sur­vival. (This means he was a Gal­va­nized Yan­kee, which I will write more about in anoth­er post.)

Most of the Via’s that I have come across in the US descend from Amer Via, a Huguenot immi­grant to Vir­ginia in about 1680. Alter­nate spellings of Via include Vier/Viers, Viar/Viars and Viet.

A cou­ple of forums for the Via sur­name exist:

• http://genforum.genealogy.com/via/
• http://www.surnameweb.org/via/surnames.htm

Here are some items I will be post­ing, as I get a chance, on this site. As I post them, I will come back to this page and link into them.

Pho­tographs
Mary E. Lane Via (1820–1893)
George A. Via (1814–1894)

Mag­a­zine and News­pa­per Arti­cles
Mica­jah Via, peti­ton on paper mon­ey, 1788
Bet­ty Via on her stu­dents as crit­ics, 1953
Dan O. Via, Sr., 50th anniver­sary, 1968
Daniel Via, 20th anniver­sary, 1974
Dan O. Via, Jr. play about Jesus, 1982
Mar­garet B. Via ordi­na­tion, 1982
Via fam­i­ly saved by their dog arti­cle 1, 1986
Via fam­i­ly saved by their dog arti­cle 2, 1986

Birth Records
Floyd Coun­ty, VA, 1853–1896
Franklin Coun­ty, VA, 1852–1870
Hanover Coun­ty, VA, 1853–1893

Land Records
Deed: James and Rosi­na Ingrum to Ander­son Via, 1848
Deed: James and Mary Via to David McAlexan­der, 1848
Deed: Robert and Eliz­a­beth Via to James Dod­son, 1849

Tax Records
Vias in the Albe­mar­le Coun­ty, Vir­ginia Land Tax Records, 1782–1813
Vias in the Albe­mar­le Coun­ty, Vir­ginia Land Tax Records, 1814–1825
Vias in the Floyd Coun­ty, Vir­ginia Land Tax Records, 1831–1850
Vias in the Hanover Coun­ty, Vir­ginia Land Tax Records, 1782–1857
Vias in the Nel­son Coun­ty Per­son­al Prop­er­ty Tax, 1809–1850

Mil­i­tary Records
Thomas David Via’s pen­sion papers (HTML | PDF)

Mar­riage Bonds & Cer­tifi­cates
Jonathan Via and Cather­ine O’Buck, 1801

Death Records
Augus­ta Coun­ty, VA, 1853–1896
Floyd Coun­ty, VA, 1853–1896
Flu­van­na Coun­ty, VA, 1853–1896
Franklin Coun­ty, VA, 1853–1896

Wills
Jonathan Via, Sr., 1858
Jonathan Via, Jr., 1888

Tomb­stones
Thomas D. and Sal­lie E. Via
Mary Via

Obit­u­ar­ies
Obit­u­ary of Sal­lie Thomas Via, 1911
Obit­u­ary of Thomas David Via, 1913
Obit­u­ary of William Mar­tin Via, 1937
Obit­u­ary of Willie Cather­ine Eliz­a­beth Via, 1937
Obit­u­ary of Bet­ty Via, 1993

Ged­coms and Oth­er Com­piled Research
Jor­dan Jones’s Ged­com of Vias
Jor­dan Jones’s Geneal­o­gy Data­base List of Vias