I'm not Mysty but perhaps I can help. Normally land was advertised by the Federal Government in 40 acre tracts and that was the way the tract books were laid out and that was the way they were set up to be sold at auction. Actually, the question should be - when did the law change that you did NOT have to own property to vote? From the very beginning of the settlement of the US one of the requirements of being able to vote was the ownership of land. That did not change until well into the 1800s. As for the middle initial I would be very careful to prove they are the same person. In my own research, at least, I've never found a man who used a middle initial sometimes and sometimes didn't. I have found that if a man had a middle initial he used it all the time. Odds on burned courthouses? I think most of us have that problem. Linda lhaasdav@mindspring.com Home.page http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~haas Marion.Co.AR http://www.rootsweb.com/~armarion List hostess for -h.a.a.s/l.e.w.a.l.l.e.n/w.a.s.h.i.n.g.t.o.n n.c ----- Original Message ----- From: Rhio <rhioreh@mail.com> To: <ARMARION-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Monday, August 28, 2000 4:58 AM Subject: Land purchases in AR > Mysty, > > Is there a reason why land was purchased in 40 acre plots in AR? Why > would Thomas Jefferson buy 2 40 acre plots instead of one 80 acre > plot? I seem to recall a reason for this but it escapes me. > > Also, Thomas uses his middle initial of J., sometimes, but at other > times he uses no initial. I don't find him in Rutherford Co., NC as > using his middle initial. I also haven't found any record of him owning > property in Rutherford Co., NC even though he held office in that > state. When did the law change for having to own property to vote? I > know that many of the records for Iredell Co. were burned - another > burned county. I get all the luck. Two burned counties - what are the > odds of your ancestors ending up in two burned counties? > > B) >