I thought you all might like to take a look at this site , which shows the progression of county divisions in the United States. Then again, you might not want to look at it because it may depress you if you are like me and are pretty sure you have VA ancestors who never moved a foot, but lived in five different counties between 1770 and 1800. Here is the URL: You must capitalize the "A" in Animation http://www.ac.wwu.edu/~stephan/Animation/us.gif