L. Roane Hunt and the Gloucester Genealogical Society of Virginia have also provided us with a new edition (2011) of the 1782-1791 tax records–Volume 1 of a series of books that will provide both personal property and land tax rolls through 1870.

Volume 1 includes the first ten years when Gloucester County included Mathews County as Kingston Parish. As each additional segment is completed, the entries will be posted on the Gloucester Society website:

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~vaggsv/index.htm

As well as published in book form.

The original tax records are also available for loan on microfilm through the Library of Virginia, Richmond VA and the Family History Library, Salt Lake City UT. And the original pages are housed in the Archive Room of the Gloucester Museum of History, Gloucester VA available by appointment.   However, the reconstruction  and restoration are only present in the printed edition of Volume 1.

Author Hunt indicates that Gloucester County’s surviving records include just these tax rolls, court minutes, and land surveys. So we can hope that when the tax records project is completed, he and his group will provide indexed transcripts of the land surveys as well. Surveys are among the most significant land records we have for Virginia–they show actual parcels of land with neighbors and proximity to related families as well as geographical features needed to place the holdings on the ground.

The surveys, too, also include substantial gaps with damaged and missing pages. They were microfilmed in 1947 and 1977 by the Family History Library from originals and photostats at the Library of Virginia and at the courthouse in Gloucester. Some records were made by Circuit Court clerks.

Here is the description from the current Family History Library Catalog (“previous” or Classic Catalog):

Using the land tax rolls and the surveys together, genealogists can re-build the property holdings of much of Gloucester County. So we are especially grateful to the Gloucester Genealogical Society and its members for funding these projects. Your favorite genealogist, Arlene Eakle   http://arleneeakle.com

Today, at the Family History Expo, Arlene was speaking on documenting your common ancestors in Congressional Records. She talked about Peter Force’s “American Archives”, a Documentary History of the early days of the United States. The set is comprised of 6 volumes in the Fourth Series, and 3 volumes in the Fifth Series for a total of 9 volumes. She has access to one of the volumes in physical format and said that because of the computer problem, she hadn’t yet Googled to see if they had been digitized. So I did that while she was talking and found that all 9 volumes are available at http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=%22Peter%20Force%22 for free, and can be read online or downloaded in a variety of formats (PDF, text, Kindle, etc).

With the computer problem, she won’t be blogging either. I’ll keep you posted if it looks like it will take longer than the end of the month.

Kathryn Bassett, webmaster for our favorite genealogist, Arlene Eakle

__like chameleons, they became whatever their surroundings were.  They attended Presbyterian services so they did not bring attention to themselves.  They were buried in Anglican graveyards so people did not know they were French.

__their naming patterns included “marker” names which were given to both male and female children in each generation to preserve knowledge of their origins.  Do you have specific spelling that seems strange?  Like Martain rather than Martin?  Grandfather insisted that his name be written correctly, even going into court to put his right name in the court documents.

__their origins include Switzerland, Italy, German provinces (especially the Palatinate and Hesse), Netherlands, where they fled from French persecution.  So while they are considered French, they are almost always something else too.

__they often spoke English before coming to America–because they lived in Ireland or London before they came here.

__they keep a low legal profile, stay out of the public eye if possible.

__they submerge their identity into other groups, supporting causes they would not otherwise show an interest in to disguise reality.

__traditions of changed names–The Edict of Nantes 16 Oct 1685, stated if their given name was not on the approved list of Roman Catholic Saints, they must select a new christening name that was on that list.  When they arrived in America, they may change back to their original given name!

See Bertrand Van Ruymbeke, and Randy L. Sparks, eds.  Memory and Identity:  The Huguenots in France and the Atlantic Diaspora. (Columbia:  University of South Carolina Press, 2003) and Kenneth C. Davis, America’s Hidden History (New York:  Harper Collins, 2008).

Add these new titles to your Fall reading list.  Your favorite Virginia genealogist, Arlene Eakle   http://arleneeakle.com

PS  I recommend that you profile your hard-to-find ancestors.  What specific characteristics do you know about them that would enable you to recognize them in a crowd?  Write these things down and look for others that match that profile.  The word profile is a good word when applied to ancestors.

Proof of Settlement–Bounties identify earliest date of residence/arrival in Virginia and may supply other places of residence where you can research that will bypass burned or lost records. Names of sponsoring groups and individuals are supplied for new immigrants–adding to your kinship networks and circles of association–what I refer to as the mini-census approach.  Create  contact/connection list as you go through the records.

Most bounties are awarded in specific locations; boundaries of grant areas are often set by law.Early and contemporary histories will include maps of these areas.  Just be careful of those created by modern  genealogists who may only show new reserves, completely overlooking old designations of land-award areas.

Bounties could be  awarded for service to the government:  for building iron forges, for bringing settlers into an unsettled area, for having more than one child, or for payment or wages the government did not have the money to pay.

Bounty Land for Military Service awarded by Virginia–

1. For French and Indian War Service–awarded in Kentucky, North Carolina, Ohio, and Western Pennsylvania.
2. For Revolutionary War Service–awarded in Kentucky and Ohio. Watch  especially for grants that span a river or a boundary line.

George Washington gave Hessian troops and British Army regulars, willing to lay down their arms and fight no more, lands up to 700 acres in unclaimed areas.  Mostly in Georgia (Greene County) and Pennsylvania (Lycoming County.)  There is also  some document evidence and family traditions of grants in Southwestern Virginia and Eastern Tennessee. Watch also for these.  Your favorite Virginia genealogist, Arlene Eakle   http://arleneeakle.com

PS  Stay tuned for some actual examples!

1. $1,000 travel money
2. 5-hour consultation with Megan Smolenyak
3. Signed copies of two books by Megan:  Who Do You Think You Are? and Trace Your Roots with DNA
4. 1 year subscription to Ancestry.com
5. DNA testing with Ancestry, onetime

Very nice grand prize–worth trying for.  Prizes courtesy Megan Smolenyak and AARP Magazine.    For details see http://www.aarp.org/familyties

Seems Ms Graham, editor of AARP Magazine, entered her father on Ancestry.com to begin building a family tree.  Within minutes, Ancestry informed her that someone had the same family tree.  On this other tree was her father!  So she connected with first cousins she had not seen or heard from since she was 6 years old.

They met.  They planned a reunion.  And had a great time.

AARP, Ancestry, and Megan would like you to have a great time too.  Check in with the details and try for the grand prize–a great summer activity for you and your family.  Your favorite Virginia genealogist, Arlene Eakle http://arleneeakle.com

PS If you win, let me know.

These are the topics (the number is the number on my topic list):

6. Migration Patterns from the British Isles to the Southern United States Before 1850.  Includes People Differences:  English, Irish, Scots, Welsh

1. Appalachian Triangle: Eastern Tennessee, Northwestern North Carolina, Southeastern Kentucky, Southwestern Virginia

7. Naming Patterns: Your Key to Ancestral Origins in the Southern United States

9. Tracing a Southern Pedigree—Research strategies, finding aids, indexes, and under-used sources to by-pass burned courthouses

Let me share with all of you an important thing I have learned about the South–many Scots settled there directly from Scotland.  Not Scots-Irish.  Scots.  Because they are mistakenly identified as coming in from Ireland, these ancestors are not found at all.  Or worse, they are attached to persons in Ireland with the same names.

Is it any wonder you are still looking for those ancestors after 15-20 years?

It’s time to break your losing streak!  Come to the Seminar at the Clayton Library and let me show you the proof…your favorite Virginia genealogist, Arlene Eakle  http://arleneeakle.com

PS  My adult whooping cough does seem a bit better–from a special diet, increased exercise, and a 10-lb weight loss.  In my former life I was a registered nurse and I never studied or heard of adult whooping cough.  Can you believe it?

PPS  And did I mention black licorice?  It helps stop the whoop.  And milk shakes–cold ice cream coats the throat and soothes it.  The cough is all in the throat.  These home-remedies are my own, from the myriad of things I tried to control the cough.

Indian Slavery in Colonial America is such a book. Tucked away on the shelf. All by itself. Not part of a category.

Edited by Alan Gallay and published in 2009 by the University of Nebraska Press in Lincoln. Two chapters are still in my mind–

1. Denise I. Bossy, “Indian Slavery in Southeastern Indian and British Societies, 1670-1730.” p. 208–”The Indian Slave Trade was founded on the European traditions of purchasing bound labor and the Indian traditions of taking war captives.”
2. C. S. Everett, “They Shall be Slaves for Lives.” This chapter is excerpted from his dissertation, An Inhuman Practice Once Prevailed in this Country, Vanderbilt University, 2009. An Act of the Virginia Assembly, Oct 1670, Act XII–any non-Christian servants imported by sea would be slaves.

Discussed in this provocative volume are these persons–

__black Indians

__colored persons of Indian descent

__white Indians

__Negro Indians

__mulatto Indians

__free Indians

__tribal Indians (non-citizens)

__town Indians (non-citizens)

__reservation Indians (non-citizens)

__covenant Indians

__contract Indian servants

__tributary Indians

__”hostile” Indians (those who fled their town)

During the Anglo-Powhatan War, 1622-32, Indian slavery was mandated for those Indians taken prisoner. By the 3rd Anglo-Powhatan War, 1644-46, Indian captives were being sold as slaves within West Indian colonies. And an external market, of considerable size, developed to foreign countries, as well as outsettlements of Virginia along rivers throughout the South.

Indian children were preferred to adults–the children did not try to escape. They never remembered they were Indian or of what tribe they came from. They could be trans-shipped to Caribbean ports from Virginia and sold into other colonies along the eastern seaboard.

These facts are carefully documented in little-known sources not previously used for Southern history. And Bacon’s Rebellion was directly connected to Indian slavery which was becoming quite lucrative!

Some 60 different Indian tribes and groups of tribes are identified and documented in this seminal study. Your favorite genealogist, Arlene Eakle http://arleneeakle.com

PS Add this title to your Spring reading list. You will not be sorry!

“This is just a reminder that a lot of what we do as genealogists and historians is founded upon the availability of records in our respective states, counties, and cities.  We need archivists to preserve, secure, organize, describe, retrieve, and digitize original records, and to provide research advice. 

We need librarians to buy all those genealogical abstracts that we don’t wish to or cannot afford to purchase for ourselves, collect and file resources, consult with us about research strategies, supply and teach some of the skills we lack, and find and/or obtain records from distant places through interlibrary loan. 

In these tumultuous economic times, library departments (especially those with a historical focus) and archives are often in the front-line to go on the budgetary chopping block.  And it is largely because the folks who are so interested in using their resources simply aren’t aware of the threat or are uncertain about how to respond. 

 The answer is simple.  Make it a point to be in the know about cuts that your local and state governments are contemplating.  When you hear that the resources you use are under threat, make a noise about it!  Work through your local genealogical society.  Plan a trip to the decision making body to meet with administrators and legislators.  Make statements at public hearings.  Speak to the press.  Yes, we all have to trim down a bit, but make sure that the services you depend upon don’t sustain a disproportionate share of the cuts because you failed to speak up.”  Randolph County NC Genealogical Journal ( Winter 2009) page 2.

This blog can be a venue for record preservation alerts–if you need or want the space.  My readers come from all over the country and outside the United States too.  And while my blog audience is still small compared to others in genealogy, readers are often vocal on what they are passionate about.

Genealogy interest is up about 22% over last year.  Attendance at genealogy events is up about 36% over last year.  Genealogy presence on social media–Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and others is up more than 700% over last year.   And presentation of online genealogy images as well as indexes leading to them is off the charts in 2010.  Even so, all this activity is a drop in a very large bucket, in 2010.  We cannot afford to handicap or cripple our access to  genealogy information.  Your favorite Virginia genealogist, Arlene Eakle.  http://arleneeakle.com

PS  An eager group of genealogists is gathering at the Family History Library, in a very snowy  Christmas-oriented Salt Lake City UT.  Leland and Patty Meitzlers’ Salt Lake Christmas Tour begins on Sunday afternoon and continues all week, until 12 Dec.  We will have access to several shelves of new books–especially for Virginia and Tennesee research!  What an exciting event it is for me–to see and to help attendees find their documentation.  Real and tangible documents to back-up lineages. 

PPS  And by special request, Linda Brinkerhoff and I will speak on Southern genealogy research sources and strategies.  We have some new examples of how to solve specific research problems using records not currently reviewed by researchers who depend on internet resources.  Very exciting stuff!  Gentle readers, don’t be too concerned if you are not registered for this cool event in 2010–this Virginia blog will share some key Southern records–and where to access them–during the week, as I blog live from the Family History Library new all-glass consultants’ booth on the 3rd floor.  It was constructed earlier this year to house us and the noise we create talking all day, and part of the evening, with attendees of the Salt Lake Christmas Tour!

But hey, when these accolades come from friends who attend especially to hear me, I’d like to acknowledge what they say.  And to share their accolades with you–so here goes…

1.  I was particularly interested in all her classes as I do research in NC, MS, TN, and VA; her areas of expertise.  Even someone who does not research those areas could have gleaned at the very least–a good history lesson!  The Family History Expos always have a great selection of speakers including Gina Philbert Ortega, Leland Meitzler, Ron Arons, Lisa Alzo, and many others.  But, if you are lucky enough to attend one which features Arlene as a speaker, you will not go home without new ideas and great directions to further your research.

She always has a booth on site too and offers a very good selection of her own published books as well as some good books by other authors in the genealogy field.  Some of her newest titles are “Genealogy in Land Records” and “Tennessee Research.”  And I was lucky to have purchased several of her titles as well as other great books at the Expo.  Winter needs to hurry and come so I have more quiet evenings of reading!  You Go Genealogy Girls #2, Cheri Hopkins, 3 Sep 2010 http://yougogenealogygirls.blogspot.com

2.  Jean here, and your blog, Arlene H. Eakle’s Genealogy Blog, was determined to be an essential part of our resources, and has received our Top Genealogy Blogs award presented by Online Colleges and Universities!

You can see your name amongst our winners here at:
www.onlinecollegesanduniversities.net/experimental-college/top-genealogy/#AArlene_H_Eakles_Genealogy_Blog

We feel learning should not be limited to only what you can earn a college degree in. So we began an Experimental College, where knowledge extends beyond the classroom. And your blog is a pivotal part of our resources.  Jean Haskins, Online Colleges and Universities, Oct 2010.

Ancestry Insider calls me “Aunt Arlene” (http://www.blogcatalog.com/blog/the-ancestry-insider/, post 3 Sep 2010) and Family History Expos has designated me a “Blogger of Honor” (http://www.fhexpos.com).

What I appreciate more than the accolades from all these friends, is the statement:  “Winter needs to hurry and come so I have more of those quiet evenings of reading.”

Each and every trip that I make to any research library includes an hour reserved to my own personal use.  I head for the new book shelf or the new and current periodical section–so I can fill up the funnel from which my presentations, my publications, and my blogs come.

You would find this approach enlightens and heightens your library trip.  And your hard-to-find ancestors will line up on the road for you to encounter aids to help track them, like they do for me.

Happens all the time to me.  In every library.  Of course, I write a lot of stuff and trace only your hard-to-find ancestors–lots of them.  So I need a lot of aid! Your favorite Virginia genealogist, Arlene Eakle   http://arleneeakle.com

PS  I am presenting the same program on Southern Research in Atlanta that I did in Kansas City:

1. What is the South and Why is it Different?
2. Birth, Marriage, and Death Records in the Southern States
3. Migrations of Southern Church Groups to the Midwest:  Routes and Records  (includes how to determine their national origins)
4. Want Land, Will Travel:  Southern Land Records, State-by-State

One exception:  I am adding more emphasis on the Deep South this event.

PPS  I am also bringing my books and information products to sell to those of you who attend.  You save postage.  You get to see before you buy.  And you can ask all the questions of me that you want, first!  Two whole days!

REGISTER:  http://www.fhexpos.com.  Conference at the Gwinnett Center, Duluth GA, 12-13 November 2010.   Exhibit Hall is FREE.  So is my advice.

While searching the deeds for Frederick County Virginia during the French and Indian War, we discovered “Early Troop Record, 1755-1761″   in Volume 18, Deeds, 1775-1780–

You would not think to look in the volume twenty years later for this incredible record!  Check microfilm reel  #0031376, item 2 Family History Library collection.  Or equivalent microfilm roll in the Library you frequent.  Your favorite Virginia genealogist, Arlene Eakle.   http://arleneeakle.com

PS  You could attend a Research Retreat–next one scheduled, April 10-15 2011. And I will take you by the hand and lead  you to your hard-to-find ancestors.  http://www.fhexpos.com

PPS  Check for new content on my Home Page–Free Stuff…