Let me introduce a collection of Bible Records of Caroline County Virginia Families by Herbert Ridgeway Collins (Heritage Books,  100 Railroad Ave #104, Westminster MD 21157.)  2008.  Collins transcribed 257 Bibles–mostly 19th century, a few 18th century.  And, as he points out, many later Bibles record family members who were born well before 1800.

Some families had more than one Bible, and they are published together, one after another so you can see the comparison of data.  One of great interest to me was the Bible of Col. Abram Penn (p. 214), Pendleton (209), and the related three Taylor family Bibles designated as Taylor Family Bible 1, 2, and 3 (pp. 267-73) with Penn data included because of the intermarriages between the two families.

Keep in mind that even if there is no Bible for a specific family of interest to you, there often is mention of your family among the entries in the Bible of someone else.  Of the 257 Bibles printed, over 45 are of particular interest to me for families I am currently researching or for families I have researched in the past.

Check the book out for Virginia surnames of interest to your family tree.  Your favorite Virginia genealogist,  Arlene Eakle   http://arleneeakle.com

PS  Herbert Ridgeway Collins has also published state and county death records, cemetery listings, and newspaper extracts for Caroline County.

So I have a stack of information to post on my blogs and limited energy to post them.  Please give me a few more days to get this under control–your favorite Virginia genealogist, Arlene Eakle   http://arleneeakle.com

Patents: The 42 volumes contain “recorded copies of patents for land issued by the English crown between 1623-1706 and 1710-1774. A few issued under the authority of the Virginia Company of London and presented for re-recording in order to affirm title are interspersed under their original dates.” — Virginia Land Office Inventory, p. 3

Grants: Grants, 1779-1921 ; index, land grants, bks. 74-124, ca. 1825-1921

Combined Indexes:  Official indexes to land patents and grants, 1623-1774, 1779-1991   Filmed under the title: Land office card catalog 1623-1990 : patents and grants.

Supporting Index:   County Abstracts, 042.  “Because this index was taken from the ‘County Abstracts’ which were begun in 1818, rather than from the patent and grant books, there are some discrepancies. Arranged by name of patentee (grantee), each card shows the date of patent (grant), the county in which the land was located when granted, the number of acres in each tract, a brief description of the property, volume, beginning page where the record appears.” — Prelim. materials

Virginia Land Grants:  A Study of Conveyancing in relation to colonial politics, 1624 to American Revolution, by Fairfax Harrison.  Richmond:  Old Dominion Press, 1925.

Other land and property record categories that are also available–

__Bounty Lands

__Caveats

__Certificates, deeds, warrants to Military Lands

__Council Grants (Issued under the British Crown Authority)

__Freedmen’s Bureau Records

__Importations

__Kentucky Lands

__Land Companies Accounts and Ledgers

__Land Ownership Maps

__Manors

__Northern Neck Lands

__Pre-Emptions

__Quitrents, Rent Rolls

__Revolutionary War Scrip

__Surveys Southwest Pennsylvania (District of West Augusta)

Your favorite Virginia genealogist, Arlene Eakle    http://arleneeakle.com

PS  Some years ago, I read all the abstracts from Augusta, Rockbridge, and Rockingham counties.  When I searched the grants and patents, I was familiar with the surnames from these specific counties–for unidentified volumes and loose papers, I could determine the county and the period of time for those records by the surnames and neighbors I knew came from those three counties. Entries not included in any of the indexes appeared as I read card by card, and page by page.  If in doubt, stop and read the records.

PPS Note that Patents are dated before 1774 and grants are dated after 1774.  It is a matter of terminology, they are the same basic record.

Warren F. Hofstra.  The Planting of New Virginia:  Settlement and Landscape in the Shenandoah Valley.  Baltimore:  John Hopkins University Press, 2004.  pp. 410+

This book caught my eye as I was walking down the book aisle at the Family History Library yesterday.  What was New Virginia?  As opposed to Old Virginia?

Here’s the premise:  The Shenandoah Valley along the western frontier of Virginia was different.  And it was acknowledged by contemporaries as a new approach to settlement–New kind of settlers.  New settlement patterns.  And from today’s perspective specific view from the air as you fly over.

1.  New settlers:  Non-English–religious dissenters, non-conformists, and Anabaptists with fewer direct ties to the British Crown or no ties at all.  Germans, Scots, Scots-Irish, Irish, Swiss, Holland Dutch, and some Scandinavians (Danish and Swedes predominated).  White yeoman families seeking personal power to order their own destiny.
2. New settlement patterns:  corporate places–towns and fortified residences, private property–farms divided and subdivided by metes and bounds surveys, endorsed by colonial and state governments in patents and grants, and secured by deeds and conveyances in local courthouses.  Roads connected these farms to each other and to local mills and market towns.  Rivers and streams connected to new ports and harbors sending goods and products abroad.  Often by-passing established routes.
3. The Shenandoah backcountry thus became forecountry–as this settlement pattern was exported to the western  frontier.  Free, entrepreneurial enterprise thrived.

Illustrated with contemporary maps as well as newly drawn maps to show on the ground these differences.  The homes and mills were directly on the roads leading to town and market.  A single pattern of public space unknown on the eastern seacoast was created.

I invite you to explore this thought-provoking perspective as it impacts the records and sources that document your Virginia ancestry.  Virginia counties have suffered much record loss–and this volume draws attention to numerous sources that are still available and waiting for you to search them.

And watch this blog for more details and example records supporting Hofstra’s thesis.  Your favorite Virginia genealogist, Arlene Eakle    http://arleneeakle.com

PS  Some of my best times occur when I stumble upon a book that make me think.  And offers new source material for tracing Virginia ancestors.  Virginia genealogy research can be a real challenge.  Stay tuned!

As the British laid down their arms and boarded English ships to leave America in defeat, 9 French ships of the Line ringed the harbor–to ensure that the British did, in fact, leave.

__The American Revolution ended the Proclamation of 1763 ordering Americans to stay on the east side of the line.  And if they had already located lands and moved west, they were to remove themselves to the east side of that line–

1. Examine a detailed Virginia map.
2. If your Virginia ancestors were in Tennessee, eastern Kentucky, western North Carolina, they were to withdraw into Bedford County Virginia.
3. If your ancestors were in western Maryland, territory that would become West Virginia, across the river into southern Ohio, they were to withdraw into the area around Shenandoah County Virginia.

And since your Americans ancestors were law-abiding people, they at least removed their families to the designated safe areas.  The men often stayed in the western territories to hold the area for the new United States and to safeguard their personal land claims.

__The American Revolution ended state-supported churches and stipulated that Americans could freely choose their religious worship.  Since the new Constitution did not have a specific provision for religious freedom, it was one of the rights protected under the Bill of Rights, added as amendments to the original document.

According to the Congressional Register, on June 8,1789, James  Madison moved that the “civil rights of none shall be abridged on account of religious belief or worship, nor shall any national religion be established, nor shall the full and equal rights of conscience be in any manner or on any pretext infringed.”

__The American Revolution ended royal ownership and control of a continent of lands.  The large estates of Loyalist landlords were confiscated and auctioned off.  Land Companies, made up of mostly Americans and including many Revolutionary veterans accumulated large holdings–so they could sell the lands and increase their own wealth.  There was so much land, however, that no man who wanted to own and control his destiny was denied.  There was enough and to spare.

Your favorite Virginia genealogist, Arlene Eakle  http://arleneeakle.com

PS  Each and every day of a 365-day year could be a day of celebration in America–just look for the fact and celebrate it.  4 July.  19 October.  30 November. 3 September.  8 June.  These are all days of Independence where we can celebrate the American freedoms we all enjoy.

1. Briceland, Alan Vance.  Westward from Virginia:  Exploration of Virginia-North Carolina Frontier, 1650-1710.  Charlottesville VA:  University Press of Virginia, 1987.
2. Powell, William S., etal.  The Regulators in North Carolina:  A Documentary History, 1759-1776.  Raleigh NC:  State Department Archives and History, 1971.  This is a very large volume of more than 600 pages with a very good bibliography.
3. “Records of Emigrants from England and Scotland to North Carolina, 1774-1775,” North Carolina Historical Review (Jan-Apr 1934).  30 pp.  Includes England:  100 names; Scotland:  500 names.  At the outbreak of the American Revolution, there were 15,000 Scottish Highlanders along this border.  Over 1,600 Highlanders arrived in 1770 alone.  Names were also printed in part in the New England Historical and Genealogical Register (1908-1911).

If you are tracing a family with a Scottish surname, beware if you are told they were Scots-Irish along this border.  Most of the Scots came directly from Scotland to take advantage of the economic conditions here.  They ran lucrative mercantile establishments, trading with the Indians, with new settlers, with countries abroad.

Do a bit of careful study along this boundary, your favorite Virginia genealogist, Arlene Eakle   http://arleneeakle.com

PS  The above list is just a beginning–stay tuned for more, in depth, recommendations.

Oh boy and howdy I learn from your blogs. I look forward to every new entry.  Joan Rambo, California

On any given day, you can find me in archives, libraries, cemeteries, or wherever your ancestors are lurking.

Virginia legalities were carried into many places where Virginians made up a substantial portion of the population.  For example:  all states formed from the Northwest Territory after 1803–Illinois, Indiana, Ohio (became a state in 1803), Michigan, and Wisconsin–the wife’s name appears on the grantors’ deeds along with the husband showing she consents to the sale of the property.  No dower relinquishment was required.  PGS Journal (Augusta 1987): 7.

A witness who signs a deed is:  physically present at the signing, a resident of that jurisdiction, at least 14 years of age–usually age 21, and not a legatee/beneficiary to the property.

Title to property is conveyed by:  deed, will /administration (inheritance), marriage.  No documents need be formally registered if the land descends by inheritance or  marriage.

Lease and release in a land document transfers title to a new owner, by-passing the ancient payment of quit-rent.  A nominal rent is listed in the lease, the release by-passes the payment of the rent.  If the document specifies a 21-year time for payment the parties are Roman Catholic (until 1778).  If the document specifies 3-lives, the parties are Protestant.  The 3-lives are not generations.  They are concurrent, and usually related male persons.

When a major boundary is a survey line–local residents assign different names on both sides of the border.  For example, along the Virginia-North Carolina line separating Lunenburg from Granville counties, Blue Stone Creek and Red Wing Creek are the same watercourse–at the boundary line the name changes.  Virginia district courts established near this same boundary line in 1788 were Charlottesville District (Amherst county, Albemarle county, Fluvanna county, Louisa county); Prince Edward District (Buckingham county, Cumberland county);  Richmond District (Powhatan county, Chesterfield county, Goochland county, Hanover county).  These courts were abolished in 1808.  See Eric G. Grundset, Historical Boundary Atlas of Central Virginia. 1999.

Your favorite Virginia genealogist, Arlene Eakle  http://arleneeakle.com

PS  The changes include a larger font-size which I appreciate.  Stay tuned for a run-down on the Colonial people who settled early Virginia.

Gloucester County, Virginia is considered a “burned county” with major genealogical record loss. So the presentation of a bound copy of Gloucester County Tax Accounts, 1770-1771 to Circuit Judge John E. DeHardit in 1966 was a genealogy event. The bound copy is a photostat of the original now in the Library of Virginia in Richmond. The original record was in the possession of Miss Sally Perrin, Gloucester. And the copy was made available through the Joseph Bryan Memorial Branch of the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities in memory of Olita Landry Mcakubin, Jr.

This ledger, covering the years 1770 and 1771, has been newly transcribed, indexed, and restored–gaps and missing segments reconstructed by L. Roane Hunt, and published in 2011 by the Gloucester Genealogical Society of Virginia, 5780 T.C. Walker Road, Gloucester VA 23061. An appendix includes the 1704/05 Quit Rent Roll for Gloucester as transcribed by Polly Cary Mason in 1946.

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  and published in book form.

Author Hunt indicates that Gloucester County’s surviving records include 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. These significant records 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 Classic Family History Library Catalog:

General index, v. 1 1690-1937 (Indexes surveyors’ books, v. 1-5, 1817-1937. Includes lists of surveyors, 1690-1907, and oyster ground surveys as recorded in clerk’s office, v. 1-3.) – FHL US/CAN Film [ 1928558 Item 3 ]; Surveyor’s book, v. A 1733-1810 (Vol. A is a photostat copy and is not in the general index) Surveyor’s book, v. 1 1817-1852 (Vol 1 is a photostat copy) – FHL US/CAN Film [ 31638 Items 1-2 ]; Surveyor’s books, v. 4-5 1900-1937 – FHL US/CAN Film [ 1928558 Items 1-2 ]

Clerk’s plat books, v. 10-11 1976-1977 – FHL US/CAN Film [ 1928559 Items 1-2 ]. Used with permission.

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

PS  These tax records are available for loan on microfilm through the Library of Virginia, Richmond VA and the Family History Library, Salt Lake City UT. The original pages are housed in the Archive Room of the Gloucester Museum of History, Gloucester VA by appointment.

PPS If you have Gloucester County ancestors, you will want your own copies of these new transcripts and indexes. Remember that your investment will help to fund more such publications!

LOUISIANA

__Spanish Land Grants

__Land Grant Frauds

__Federal Land Descriptions and Divisions

__Large Plantations

__Salt Rolls

Trade with Indian Tribes

__Panton, Leslie, Forbes Grants and Papers (See Coker and Watson, Indian Traders…University of West Florida, 1986). Over 10,000 documents on microfilm, other records collected from Spain, England, Scotland, France, Mexico, and Canada.

 KENTUCKY

__Stations and stockades on 600-acre  Grants

__400-acre Pre-emptions (Scots-Irish influence), A List of Lands Claimed by Settlers and Pre-emptioners in District of Kentucky (incl WV, VA, PA) FHL#0007811, item 2

__1,000-acre Pre-emptions

__Local Censuses, 1830, 1840, 1850, 1860, 1870, recorded with Tax Rolls

__Draper Papers, include early settlements, FHL 147 microfilm reels

__Shane Papers, Scots-Irish Family and Presbyterian Church Histories and Records, FHL 36 microfilm reels.  Guide to Shane Manuscript Collections by William K. Hall.

__Military Bounty Land Grants that Span the Ohio River

__Land Processioning Minutes and Accounts

__Early Land Entries in Kentucky, 1779-1817 FHL 6 microfilm reels (Lincoln and Fayette counties, military entries, May’s Entries)

__List of Delinquent Kentucky Landowners, 1796-1806, FHL# 174950

__Headright Warrants, 1827-1849 FHL# 272874

GEORGIA

__Land Lotteries

__Military Bounty Lands awarded to Hessian Troops by George Washington, Green County

__Index to Headrights and Bounty Grants of Georgia, 1756-1909

__Researcher’s Library of Georgia History, Genealogy, and Record Sources, 2 vols. by Robert Scott Davis

__1862 Georgia Salt Rolls ed Sherry Harris

__Bounty Lands, awarded for Revolutionary War Service in any State

__Yazoo Land Frauds

__Large Plantations

__Deeds include Migration Patterns from Ireland, Scotland, England, Wales

FLORIDA

__Spanish Land Grant Archives, 1764-1849

__Index to Spanish West Florida Archives, 1782-1810

__East and West Florida

__Large Plantations

__Runaway Slaves:  Blacks, Indians

__Women in Florida Parishes, 1780-1971, FHL 5 microfilm reels (incl LA, MS)

__Pintado Papers, 1795-1842 FHL 3 microfilm reels (LA, FL)

ALABAMA-MISSISSIPPI

__Federal Land Grants, Rectangular Survey

__Federal Military Forts

__Indian Reservations

__New York Land Developers

__Ganderrud Collection, Indexes to County Records, ca 250 vols

__TVA Relocation Files, 1934-1954 FHL 16 microfilm reels

__Mississippi Land Papers and Secret Militia Rolls, 1788, ed Winston deVille

This is a Preliminary Checklist for the Southern States Land Records:  State by State.  I will add to it from time to time and post those additions on this blog.  If you know of land processes or records that were created and preserved by jurisdictions other than the county, please share so that we can all benefit from those sources.  In the South, you need all the records you can find!  Your favorite Virginia genealogist, Arlene Eakle   http://arleneeakle.com

PS  If any of you, gentle readers, have a question, I have actual examples of every record and process listed above–including the Kentucky censuses taken by the local marshals at the time the Federal Censuses were taken.  They accepted the Federal government’s invitation to gather additional data when the Federal census was taken–some of it three pages worth for each tax payer.

PPS Records on microfilm at the Family History Library can be borrowed on loan through thousands of local research centers.  The microfilm projects may also be available at genealogy and university libraries “close to home” nearby where you live.  Check your local resources first.

You see, the South has experienced extraordinary record loss, especially at the county level. Over 393 counties have substantial record loss.  So I began to draft a checklist of land processes and records  the majority of which were created by other levels of jurisdiction–they are not nor were they found in the courthouse.  When the courthouse burned or was flooded, these records were not there to be damaged.

Here is my preliminary checklist (alphabetical by state):  Southern Land Record:  State by State

VIRGINIA (West Virginia until 1863, Kentucky until 1792, parts of Tennessee until 1796, parts of Ohio until 1803, parts of North Carolina–remember that “…in the beginning, all was Virginia.”)

Large Plantations and Manors Records, including

__Farm Books

__Account Books and Files

Land Companies and Speculators

__Double-entry Bookkeeping Ledgers

“The One Hundred”–Virginia Men with the largest numbers of acres, slaves, cattle

__Quit Rents, 1704

__Northern Neck Indexed Lists , 1770′s

Warrants, Surveys, Grants

__Headrights

__Indexes, Published Entries to 1783

__Cavaliers and Pioneers, 8 vols.

__Northern Neck, 4 vols.

__Digitized Documents, Library of Virginia website, http://www.lva.virginia.org

Biographical Dictionary of Early Virginia, 1607-1660, ed Ransom B. True, 22 microfiche FHL# 6332718; Guide and Supplement FHL# 1750757, item 21.

__Lists of Inhabitants, 1782-1785, Virginia.  Check against originals–spellings are a challenge.

__No Conveyance if Land Descends to Heirs

__Slave Rental Agreements, Wage Lists

__Bounty Lands Awarded Ohio, Kentucky, North Carolina (along Virginia line), Southwest Pennsylvania

__Will Filed in Place of Residence Transfers Title Wherever Located

__Surveyors’ Ledgers and Files for every County, Some Indexed

TEXAS

__Spanish Land Grants

__Indexed Grants Online, Texas State Archives

__Natchez Trace Collection, 1759-1813, FHL 10 microfilm reels (incl MS and LA Territories)

TENNESSEE

__Septennial Military Censuses (with tax rolls every 7 years)

__Jurisdiction Overlap in Virginia and North Carolina

__New York Land Speculators and their Records

__Glasgow Land Frauds,2 vols, ed  A. Bruce Pruitt

__Military Bounty Lands, 2 Districts

__Indian Lands Reserved, then opened to settlers

__Indexed Land Entries Made by Entry-Taker

__Indexed Surveys for Middle Tennessee, 3 volumes

__TVA Relocation Files, 1934-1954, FHL 41 reels of microfilm

SOUTH CAROLINA (included North Carolina until        )

__South Carolina Name Index to Genealogical Records Collected by the DAR,              FHL# 6052835, 102 microfiche

__Slave Deeds and Mortgages

__Large Plantations

__Original Counties were called Districts until 1868

NORTH CAROLINA

__Bounty Lands Awarded in Tennessee, edited and indexed by A. Bruce Pruitt

__Land Grants Indexed to 1776

__Early Settler Maps, selected counties

__Powers of Attorney Filed in Other Counties and States

__Organizing Petitions Submitted from Counties, with Signatures

__Cherokee Indian Agency Records, Indexed 1801-04

__http://www.statewidetitle.com (County Register of Deeds with GIS maps)

MARYLAND

__Colonial Records Centralized:  Land, Tax, Court, Probate

__Card Index to Testamentary Proceedings, State-Wide Finding Aid

__Lands for Pennsylvania Recorded in Frederick County MD

__Free People of Color (majority of blacks)

__Named Land Tracts

__Plantations and Manors

__Debt Books, Rent Rolls–include chain of title

__Wills Filed Where Lands are Located–copy of will filed in every county where land located

__Westward of Fort Cumberland, ed Mary K. Meyer, Revolutionary War Bounty Lands

TO BE CONTINUED, stay tuned.  Your favorite Virginia genealogist, Arlene Eakle   http://arleneeakle.com

PS  You will find Virginians in every Southern State,  bringing with them elements of Virginia laws and traditions.