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The U.S. Virgin Islands, located just east of Puerto Rico, is an unincorporated territory of the United States. Formerly named the Danish West Indies, the island was under the control of the Colony of Denmark from 1672 through 1916. After many years of negotiations between Denmark and the U.S., the island officially became the Virgin Islands of the United States in March 1917. This guide offers a selection of resources and strategies for the U.S. Virgin Islands local history and genealogy research. These include the print and digital collections of the Library of Congress, as well as external repositories and web sites key to finding forebears in the Caribbean island.
The Library of Congress has one of the world's premier collections of U.S. and foreign genealogical and local historical publications, numbering more than 50,000 compiled family histories and over 100,000 U.S. local histories. The Library's genealogy collection began as early as 1815 with the purchase of Thomas Jefferson's library.
