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William Matthew Kidd

United States federal judge (1918–1998)

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 24, 2026
Entity authorityQ8015235
Source-derived summary

William Matthew Kidd (June 15, 1918 – December 20, 1998) was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia and the United States District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia.

Education and career

Born in Burnsville, West Virginia, Kidd was in the United States Navy during World War II, from 1942 to 1945. He received a Bachelor of Laws from West Virginia University College of Law in 1950. He was a member of the West Virginia House of Delegates from 1950 to 1952. He was in private practice in West Virginia from 1952 to 1974. He was the prosecuting attorney of Braxton County, West Virginia from 1962 to 1970. He was a Judge of the 14th Judicial Circuit of West Virginia from 1974 to 1976. He was Chief Judge of the 14th Judicial Circuit from 1976 to 1979.

Federal judicial service

Kidd was nominated by President Jimmy Carter on November 30, 1979, to the United States District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia, to a new seat created by 92 Stat. 1629.

Editorial summary

“William Matthew Kidd” enters the record as united States federal judge (1918–1998). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what William, Matthew and Kidd can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1918, 1998, 1942, 1945—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1918-06-15. Its strongest next move is a source search built around William, Matthew and Kidd.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“William Matthew Kidd” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, William, Matthew and Kidd provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q8015235. VIAF identifies the subject as 169984630. The Library of Congress control number is no2011058314. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1918, 1998, 1942 and 1945.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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  2. Expand the search: follow William Matthew Kidd primary sources, William Matthew Kidd archive and William research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from William Matthew Kidd” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.