I'm now in Virginia - ground zero for much of my family and my husband's. I'm visiting houses, cousins, graveyards and my personal Mecca, the Library of Virginia. Four days there doesn't seem nearly enough time, but I shall make the most of it.
Saturday I plowed through Lancaster and Northumberland records, looking for the wills I've been citing, looking for estate settlements, inventories, other deeds and indentures. And I found them. Dozens and dozens of them. I haven't dared count how many pages I'm going to copy to my flash drive on Monday.
And I saw what I'd known in the abstract - the names that are missing from those lovely, easy abstracts. There are dozens and dozens of them, as well. Names like Sam, 42 year old male. Annie, 16 year old female. Stepto, 27 year old male. (These aren't specific people - just examples.) I looked away several times. I was more exhausted than I've been the entire trip. I can't possible copy them all. But I will copy everyone of "ours" that I can get to. And over the next months I will transcribe every name and publish them all.
In the meantime, if you're seeking enslaved ancestors from the Northern Neck and believe they might have been owned by the following families please contact me after August 1st. I'll be glad to send you copies of anything I've found.
Slave Owners naming Slaves in 18th & 19th c. Northern Neck Records
Corbin
Currell
Gibson
Lawson
Lee
McTyre
Meredith
Palmer
Yerby
These other families may also have left records naming slaves, but I have not seen them so far. I will, however, be copying records so may have information on them later.
Conway (Northern Virginia)
Dobyns (Northern Virginia)
Doggett (Northern Virginia)
Holt (Amelia and Campbell Counties)
James (Wythe and Smyth Counties)
Mason (Campbell County)
Porter (Fauquier County)
Turner (Northern Virginia)
Williams (Wythe, Grayson, Smyth Counties)
