Virginia Colonial Records, 1600s-1800s

Thousands of Virginia's early settlers arrived in the colony as a result of the headright system. Under this system, anyone who paid his way (or someone else's way) to Virginia received fifty acres of land. In order to receive a land patent under the headright system, an individual would petition the county court for a "certificate of importation." The certificates were then recorded in the county court minute books. For genealogical purposes, these records can help establish relationships and approximate arrival times in the colony. This data set presents much such valuable information, along with other records of land acquisition.

In addition to land record abstracts, you will also find lists of colonial Virginia inhabitants (including the first census list, compiled in 1623-1624). These records are important because few reliable lists of colonial Virginia inhabitants exist.

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If you can’t get there...

I recently received somewhat similar comments from a couple of readers, and since I am sure there are other readers in the same situations, my topic today is related to homebound genealogists and those who don't live near genealogical research repositories...

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Cold Case Genealogy

New Year's resolutions can be a very good thing for us. The beginning of a new year provides a milepost we can use to measure the end of one activity and the beginning of another one. I also know what you're thinking: "It's a real problem keeping those resolutions!" That can be the case but we all know that the commitment to perseverance really lies within ourselves.

One of the regular listeners to weekly "The Genealogy Guys" podcast that I do with Drew Smith just wrote to tell us how much she enjoyed these online broadcasts. She also said that it was her commitment to "get serious" about her genealogy when she retired. Well, the first year of retirement didn't go as expected and she wanted some advice about how to pick up the pieces and get started again in earnest. I want to make some suggestions for getting organized and re-started on your research in Along Those Lines . . . this week.

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Why Are They Buried There?

I love exploring cemeteries just about everywhere I go. As I study family burial lots, it is common to see a marker with another surname other than that of the other people interred there. There also are individuals buried adjacent to one another who are not apparently related in any way. Have you ever considered why a person is buried where he or she is buried?

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Scotch-Irish Settlers in America, 1500s-1800s

If you've got ancestors of Scotch-Irish descent, you'll want to explore the 13 volumes available here. Among these significant volumes, you'll find a collection of Pennsylvania genealogies from Chester county, a location historically scarce on genealogical source material.

Approximately 215,000 individuals referenced. Genealogically valuable because passenger and immigration lists can be an invaluable primary source for tracing most immigrants to the United States, particularly in the 19th century.

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Southern Women in the Civil War

Women in the South endured hardship and sacrifice almost from the start of the Civil War. Unlike in the North, where some lives remained relatively unaffected, many in the South found war knocking at their front door. For many, life would never be the same. Yet even at the height of the war, traditions were upheld by Southern gentry. Plantation mistresses attempted to carry on a social life whenever possible. Dinners and teas continued to be held by society wives such as Mary Chesnut. Many were attended by leading Confederate Army officers who visited between battles...

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Massachusetts & Maine Family Histories, 1650s-1930

This database contains pages from Cape Cod Library of Local History and Genealogy and Massachusetts and Maine Families. Originally published by the Genealogical Publishing Company, these volumes contain information about approximately 77,000 individuals. Since relatively few Cape Cod records have survived, the 108 histories and essays collected in Cape Cod Library of Local History and Genealogy are valuable resources. They can provide a better understanding of the period in which your ancestors lived. Massachusetts and Maine Families documents the complete ancestry of Walter Goodwin Davis. Almost anyone with considerable New England ancestry will descend from one or more of the 180 families included in this database.

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Source Priority

Each week I look through the many e-mail messages for the "Ask Rhonda" column and come across a particular question that seems so important that it deserves extra attention. This week, the question of source priority is just such a question. A reader sent in a question asking what to do when sources contradict each other. He wanted to know if there was a rule for applying more weight to one source than another and wondered how to prioritize his sources.

As I sat there reading his message, the wheels began to turn and I began to ponder this question. The easy answer is that yes there are some sources that are better than others, but then I go to thinking about why that is...

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