The author's original quest of finding his relatives in the 1860 census of Shenandoah County, Virginia, led to the collection of data on hundreds of households. In this first volume, over 500 dwellings are accounted for in Edinburg, Woodstock, Edinburg District, and Powells Fort. The census data, organized by dwelling number and family number, is given for each family; this is followed by detailed biographical information covering nearly every individual in each household. Information on most people includes birth and death dates, marriage dates, military activity, location of burial, education/occupation, children, second spouses, related families, census dwelling and family numbers, and the microfilm page number, when applicable.