Dear Oldham researchers of Virginia, North Carolina, and Kentucky, and on to Missouri and other parts: There were a number of persons with the surname Oldham [variant spellings] in Richmond County, Virginia, from at least 1721 to at least Nov 1752 (and perhaps beyond). Reminder: Richmond County, Virginia is NOT the same as the independent city of Richmond which is on the James River. Richmond Co. is between the Potomac and the Rappahannock Rivers, in what is called the Northern Neck. The City of Richmond is surrounded by the county of Henrico (again, on the James River) Now, after that geography lesson, here is some information about some Oldhams/Oldums/Oldam families (no, individuals) who appear in court records of Richmond County, Virginia beginning about Jul 1721. These are some of the indexed names which appear in Order Books 9, 10, 11 and 12. Films of these order books may be ordered through your local LDS family history center (hope you are near one), or, if you are in Virginia, you probably can order them from the Library of Virginia. Here are names which appear in the printed index (details below) for Richmond Co., VA: Oldam ..Jr John Peter Rebecca Richard Widow William OLDHAM George James John John, Jr. Juney Junifred Katherine Mary Mary (Northumberland Co.) (10 miles) - [she probably was a witness] Moses Peter Priscilla Rebecca Richard Richard, Jr. Samuel (Samuel (Westmoreland Co.) (15 miles--may have testitied; he was a J.P.) Widow William OLDUM Catherine George George, Jr. James John John, Jr. Mary Peter Porter Rebecca Richard Richard, Jr. Samuel William The index to this particular set of Order Books was compiled and published a few years ago by TLC Genealogy, Miami Beach, FL. The publishing company no longer seems to be in existence, as many of us have ordered their books in the past and would continue ordering if they were still in business. If you think any of these Oldhams may be your ancestors, you may want to do this: Find on _www.familysearch.org_ (http://www.familysearch.org) a link to Forms Find a form entitled something like Request for Photocopies, which you can download and print out. For a fee, you can send to the FHL in Salt Lake City and request the title page, the map of Richmond County, 1859, the total Introduction, pages 1 through 4, and then request photocopies of all the surnames beginning with O (which appear on pages 119-120) You will need the introduction to tell you the date of the page number cited for each Oldham. Without dates, genealogy is rather worthless. The fHL film numbers for these dates are 33708, 33709, 33710. (There are subsequent films, but I don't find an index, at least a published one.) TLC Genealogy had helped a good deal by indexing these films of court orders. There are films of court records (called court orders) preceding these dates and films after these dates. Occasionally, I hae found that some court records of some states have a handwritten index at the beginning of the book, but one cannot count on finding such an index.. Nothing is easy in genealogy, and reading handwritten court records is a time-consuming task, but if you find your relatives, or ancestors, then the effort is worhtwhile. Sometimes you would rather not know about their frailties/misdeeds, but that's life!!! Will you share your findings with the list? E.W.Wallace descendant of Jesse Oldham of Caswell Co., NC and later of Madison Co., KY PS: Please post this to other locailty lists which you think may have an interest in colonial Oldham families of Virginia.