Early Virginia Research: The Jurisdictional Challenge, Part 2
You can master the jurisdictional challenge of early Virginia research if you include searches in special jurisdictions which cover specific segments of the population–your hard-to-find Virginia ancestors are waiting!
These record-keeping entities are important because:
· These Virginia jurisdictions create unique records documenting your ancestors
· You are dependent upon which Virginia records have survived to trace your family tree
· Where major record loss occurs at one level, search others levels to fill in the holes
· Libraries catalog and file records by provenance (authorship); jurisdictions are authors
· The records produced by these special jurisdictions have not been unavailable until recently–you will be searching sources others may not yet have examined
A Research FACT: Major genealogical sources in early Virginia, omit chunks of people–a research fact that most genealogy textbooks neglect to tell you–so how would you know you must consult these jurisdictions?
Consider these omissions in traditional sources:
wills (40% to 80%), probate inventories (up to 60%), tax lists and tithables (10% to 20%), church records (50% and higher), deeds (up to 60%), censuses (15% to 35%), customs records and passenger lists (over 40%).
Plantations–Private Jurisdictions Under Landed Planters
Plantations are based on English feudal organization. Terms, used in plantation records, may not be familiar to you. So let’s examine some of the more important ones:
