HelPeR - BYU Idaho Special Collections and Family History

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Office in London, in particular his investigations
of the reports sent from Virginia to the Colonial
Office—an investigation into the very marrow of
Virginia history.
Among the documents copied and recorded here,
such as lists of colonial officials, naval and militia
officers, petitions, French refugees (1700-1702) and
lists of ships leaving and arriving at Virginia ports,
three groups of records in particular deserve to be
singled out: (1) The Present State of Virginia (with
respect to individual counties), which gives county
acreage, number of tithables, and names of sheriffs,
burgesses, coroners, justices, clerks, surveyors,
and ministers; (2) Patents for Land, 1699-1737 (with
gaps), giving the name of the patentee, date of the
patent, county, and acreage; and (3) The Rent Rolls
of 1704, which supply the names of thousands of
property holders in 20 Virginia counties! “No student
of colonial Virginia history, biography and genealogy
can afford to be without this source book.”
—Milton Rubincam, National Genealogical Society
Quarterly.
Related Families of Botetourt
County Virginia—Revised Edition
By J. William Austin, II
and Rebecca H. R. Austin;
Originally printed in 1977;
Reprinted 2008; 5.5x8.5; 435
pp; softbound. Order from
the publisher at: Clearfield
Company, Inc., 3600 Clipper
Mill Road, Suite 260, Baltimore,
MD 21211; or www.
genealogical.com; CF9373;
ISBN: 9780806350233; $42.50
plus $4.00 p&h.
The central Virginia county
of Botetourt was formed from Augusta County
in 1769. Botetourt County is the parent county, in
part, of Allegany, Bath, Craig, Fincastle, Montgomery,
Roanoke, and Rockbridge counties in Virginia.
Published originally in 1977 and revised expressly
for the Clearfield edition, Mr. and Mrs. Austin’s
compendium of 48 family histories was fashioned
together from a variety of primary and secondary
sources. Among other things, the compilers made a
careful study of Botetourt County marriages, wills,
deeds, and death records from microfilm available
at the Virginia State Library, as well as Botetourt
County records housed at the county clerks’ offices
in Fincastle (Botetourt County), Salem (Roanoke
County), and Lexington (Rockbridge County). The
end result is an extensively annotated collection of
early Botetourt families, many of whose progenitors
were born in the 18th century. The families included
in the volume, in the sequence in which they appear,
are: Adams, Ammen, Austin, Beckner, Blount,
Bowyer, Burger, Coffman, Crowder, Dempsey, Deisher,
Fellers, Finch, Firebaugh, Flaherty, Hannah,
Howell, Jopling, Kessler, Leftwich, Linkenhoger,
McFerran, Noffsinger, Obenshain-Sweetland,
Peck and Dill, Poague, Rinehart, Ritchey, Saville,
Simpson, Sizer, Slusser, Stoner, Switzer, Wilhelm,
Wood, Border, Bane, Etzler, Crush, Hypes, Layman,
Lunsford, Young, Garland, Bolton, and Haden, and
some virtually indecipherable. The authors have indexed
the names according to the variant spellings
so as to draw no inferences that may be erroneous
as to the identity of that person. It is advised that
the researcher refer to the photostatic or microfilm
copy for verification. Spelling of geographic locations
vary widely also, as does the handwriting.
To verify place names, one should check a modern
topographic map for the closest approximation.
Like most vestry books, Albemarle Parish's recounts
parish business, such as payment and exemptions
of levies, appointment of collectors, processions
of land, construction of churches, and so on. While
it does not contain many references to blood relationships,
it has the virtue of placing individuals
in Albemarle Parish in the 18th century. Given the
scarcity of Sussex County records for the period under
investigation, researchers should welcome the
opportunity to investigate the roughly 6,500 Surry/
Sussex county inhabitants identified in this meticulously
transcribed and indexed work.
144 © Ev e r t o n’s Ge n e a l o g i c a l He l p e r Ja n ua ry/Fe b r u a r y 2009