Tracking Maryland and Virginia roots prior to 1790

For many genealogical researchers who live in the American Southeast and Midwest, there's a high likelihood that at least some, if not the majority, of family roots will ultimately run back to the mother colonies of Virginia and Maryland.  Both of these colonies/states provided large percentages of the settlers who began moving west after the Revolution, particularly through "feeder states" like Kentucky and Tennessee into the states of the old Southwest (including Arkansas) and the Midwest.

For many of us tracking our roots back to Maryland and Virginia, a common problem we encounter as we pursue our family research is that we can fairly easily follow the line back to 1790, using the powerful tool provided by the federal census.  But prior to 1790, records often become murkier and more elusive, and we discover that we have great difficulty in tracing our lines in Maryland and Virginia.

The lecture will provide suggestions and tools for researchers seeking to sort out their family lines in these important "mother" colonies/states prior to the 1790 census.  In particular, it will focus on how a combination of land, tax, court, and estate records can help researchers confirm their lineages in Maryland and Virginia before 1790.  The workshop will discuss these tools by looking at a case study--the records of a Thomson family living in Hanover and Louisa Co., Virginia, in the 1700s.

William D. (Bill) Lindsey is a Little Rock native who has been actively engaged in genealogical research for over 30 years.  He holds a Ph.D. in theology from the University of St. Michael's College in Toronto, an M.A. in theology from the same school, and an M.A. in English from Tulane University.   He has served on the board of Arkansas Genealogical Society, and is author of a number of genealogical articles in various journals.   His genealogical research has focused primarily on families in the American Southeast, particularly those with roots in Virginia, Maryland, and the Carolinas.  His series of articles "Brown or White Sugar: The Story of a Mixed-Race Plantation Family in 19th-Century Arkansas" in Arkansas Family Historian won the Arkansas Historical Society's Walter L. Brown Award for Best Family History published in a county or local journal in 2010.

The Village Genealogical Society meets the first Thursday of each month (except July and August) at the Coronado Center, Room 6, at 2 PM.  Anyone interested in family research is welcome to attend.   Please call Bill Patterson  at 922-6965 or Valerie Hartnett  at 922-6922  for details.