Copyright by Paul Heinegg 2020
All Rights Reserved
Dedicated to the memory of
my mother-in-law,
Katherine Kee Phillips,
a descendant of the
James, Peters, Tann, and Walden Families
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This project was made possible by the generous policy of the Library of Virginia which loaned me microfilm copies of most of the colonial court order books on interlibrary loan in cooperation with the Montgomery County, Pennsylvania Public Library--over 1,000 reels.
The Registers of Deeds and County Clerks of dozens of North Carolina and Virginia counties sent me copies of hundreds of deeds and wills. In particular the Northampton County, Virginia court clerk photocopied over 300 pages of the indexes to court records, the court records themselves, and lists of tithables.
Jonathan Butcher abstracted for me the Bertie and Granville County lists at the North Carolina State Archives.
I would also like to thank those who have transcribed so many of the microfilm and manuscript records of North Carolina and Virginia: Weynette Parks Haun and Ruth and Sam Sparacio.
Edmund Morgan's book, American Slavery, American Freedom, and Joseph Douglas Deal's doctoral thesis, Race and Class in Colonial Virginia, most influenced my thinking on colonial Virginia history and made me aware of the possibilities for research in Virginia.
Virginia Easley DeMarce shared with me her extensive references for her work, Verry Slitly Mixt, which was published as a series of articles in the National Genealogical Society Quarterly.
Professor Michael Nichols of the Utah State University shared his extensive Petersburg research.
Robert A. Jackson sent me photocopies of Pettiford and Bibby family letters. Roger A. Peterson sent me photocopies of Owen County, Indiana court records, and Coy D. Roberts of Bloomington, Indiana sent me photocopies of Orange County, Indiana free papers. Forest Hazel shared Jeffries family court records, and Douglas Paterson shared Robins and Pinn family records. Scott Wilds shared Darlington District, South Carolina records, and William and Carolyn Adams shared court records for the Beckett family.
More recently, the Genealogical Society of Utah has copied thousands of North Carolina and Virginia manuscript volumes and made them available on the internet.
ABBREVIATIONS AND NOTES ON THE TEXT
CR |
County records at the North Carolina State Archives, followed by stack file number. |
DB |
Deed Book |
DW |
Deeds, Wills |
JNH |
Journal of Negro History |
L.P. |
Loose papers at the county courthouse |
M804, 805 |
Microfilm of the Revolutionary War pension files at the National Archives |
MSA |
Maryland State Archives |
NCGSJ |
North Carolina Genealogical Society Journal |
NCHR |
North Carolina Historical Review |
Orders |
Order book for the county court of pleas and quarter sessions |
OW |
Orders, Wills |
PPTL SS |
Personal Property Tax Lists on microfilm at the Library of Virgina Secretary of State records at the North Carolina Archives |
T.R. T&C |
Troop Returns at the North Carolina State Archives Treasurer and Controller's files at the North Carolina State Archives |
VA:, NC:, etc. |
Federal census records for the state. Page number is for the printed version of the census in 1790 and the microfilm of the original for all other years. |
VMH |
Virginia Magazine of History |
WB |
Will Book |
W&cO |
Wills, etc. Orders |
Sources are referenced in square brackets within the text in abbreviated format. The full citations are in the list of sources at the end of the book.
Arabic numbers indicate the position of each biography within a family history, similar to the Record System. Superscripts after first names indicate the order of birth of individuals with the same first name.
Lower case Roman numerals identify a person's children by birth order. A question mark before the name of a person in a child-list indicates that they are included in the list by best guess based on the available information.
Free African Americans are identified by printing their family names in bold except in their own family history.
The author will answer inquiries on any families.