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Richmond County wills are extant only from 1699, but the compiler of this useful work has bridged the gap by substituting information from Order Books, 1692-1699, thereby extending the possibilities for genealogical enquiry. The entries, which consist mainly of abstracts of wills and inventories and refer to about 8,000 persons, are arranged throughout the work in chronological order.
The middle chapters of this book are given over to Wilkes County genealogy and biography, with chapters on the buyers and sellers of lots and the early settlers of the county. The work as a whole is crowded with references to ministers, officials, teachers, and soldiers, so much so that an index of more than 2,000 entries was created by Mrs. Hays to encompass them.
Designed for both professional and amateur genealogists and other researchers, this index provides a detailed guide to materials available in the extensive Records of Ante-Bellum Southern Plantations microfilm set. By using this index to identify specific collections in which materials pertinent to a specific family name, plantation name, or location may be found, and then reviewing the details in the appropriate Guides (see Preface), the researcher may pinpoint the location of desired materials. The items indexed include deeds, wills, estate papers, genealogies, personal and business correspondence, account books, slave lists, and many other types of records. This new edition also includes a list of all of the manuscript collections included in the microfilm set.
Composed almost entirely of abstracts of wills, deeds, marriage records, powers of attorney, court orders, church records, cemetery records, tax records, guardianship accounts, etc., this unique work provides substantive evidence of the migration of individuals and families to Virginia or from Virginia to other states, countries, or territories. Although primarily concerned with Virginians, the data are of wide-ranging interest. England, France, Germany, Scotland, Barbados, Jamaica, and twenty-three American states are represented, all entries splendidly tied to court sources and authorities. Each record provides prima facie evidence of places of origin and removal, irrefutably linking individuals to both their old and their new homes, and incidentally naming parents and kinsmen, all 10,000 of whom are listed in alphabetical order in the indexes. It is a safe observation that half of the records, having been exhumed from the most improbable sources (some augmented by the compiler's personal files), are the only ones in existence which can prove the ancestor's identity and origin.
"In this reprint edition the contents [of the original 34 volumes] have been rearranged, re-typed, and consolidated in three hardcover volumes, each with its own master index."--Title page verso.
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