Sandi Gorin is the web coordinator of Kentucky Research, URL given so that you may subscribe. _KYRESEARCH-admin@rootsweb.com_ (mailto:KYRESEARCH-admin@rootsweb.com) Some of my Kemper ancestors settled in Garrard Co., KY and are found there in some of the later censuses. They appear in these early tax lists, the county given after the names. Kempers, also spelled Camper, and Kamper, were of the First Germanna Colony, although John Kemper is said to have been a bachelor. These Kemper males in early Kentucky may be the cousins or uncles of the Garrard Co., KY bunch. (Tip: Look for misspellings of your surnames. One of the families into which/whom my families married were named Quisenberry. Sandi had some of them listed [as she found them] under C for Cusonberry or some such and also under G [for another variant]!) Kentucky did not become a state [commonwealth] until 1792, and some of the early censuses are missing. Hence tax lists are fairly good census substitutes. Sandi wrote that she did not have the original tax lists. Kentucky was attractive because of the ability to acquire land relatively easy. Until well after the Revolution, primogeniture was the law in Virginia. One archivist said that for that reason the eldest son's name may be omitted from Virginia wills. By law, the eldest son was entitled to the land. Hence the big migration to Kentucky probably by those who were not given land by their fathers [as some of the land-wealthy fathers did] or did not inherit land in Virginia. Of course, Pennsylvanians and North Carolinians poured into Kentucky also. KEMPER: Henry, _Fayette_ (http://www.ancestry.com/facts/fayette-family-history.ashx) , 1790; _Tilman_ (http://www.ancestry.com/facts/tilman-family-history.ashx) , _Fayette_ (http://www.ancestry.com/facts/fayette-family-history.ashx) , 1790. Some of the Kempers, at least of Garrard Co., KY, formed from Mercer Co., married a good many of their Holzclaw [variant spellings] cousins, some of whom across the Dick's River in Mercer Co. HOLTZCLAW: James, Nelson, 1792; Kelly, Nelson, 1792. Unless you use the Archives for rootsweb, now owned by Ancestry.com, but still free, you will not find past issues of these tax lists for KY Research. KYRESEARCH Archives:http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index?list=kyresearch For earlier appearances on tax lists of some of the Germanna colonists who removed to Kentucky, you might try to find in a library near you the so-called 1787 Census of Virginia, which included the then-counties of Kentucky, still part of Virginia in 1787. The title of the three volumes Netti Schreiner-Yantis and Florine S. Love, The 1787 Census of Virginia. These are personal property tax lists and not real property tax lists. They are pretty good people finders for large numbers of Virginians and Kentuckians, some of whom owned personal property in several Virginia/Kentucky counties. The third volume of this set is an index to the two preceding volumes. Some of the counties have three personal property tax lists, and some widows are listed. Use the index first, and if your surname is common, photocopy the index as there will be many entries, then arrange the page numbers in numerical order so that you can peruse/photocopy the appropriate pages, including the key to the meaning of these tax lists. E.W.Wallace **************Looking for a car that's sporty, fun and fits in your budget? Read reviews on AOL Autos. (http://autos.aol.com/cars-BMW-128-2008/expert-review?ncid=aolaut00050000000017 )