I deleted the message about the 1790 KY census- it has been recounstructed from tax lists....also, VA State Library has tax lists for the counties while they were part of VA. See if I can get this right. You begin with Botetourt Co in 1770 - would be southern part of present West VA, Kentucky, 2/3 of Indiana, almost all of Illinois (without the north-east tip), and even the very southwest corner of Wisconsin. This was all VA- Botetourt. Now Augusta Co VA was Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, the part of IL and IN not in Botetourt, northern WVA, etc. (also remember dispute between several colonies over western land) Fincastle Co VA was formed in 1772. 1777 Fincastel was split into 3 VA counties - Washington, Montgomery, and Kentucky. Now please, do not look at where Washington and Montgomery counties are now in VA - talking about a much larger area. Even part of eastern TN comes in there - such as Sullivan Co TN. They finally realized that part of that was NC, so Sullivan Co TN and all of present TN came to be NC. Back to Kentucky..... 1780 Kentucky Co was formed into Jefferson, Fayette, and Lincoln. As I said, VA state library has tax lists for these counties....Jefferson for 1789-1793, Fayette for 1787-1793, and Lincoln for 1787-1791. Out of Fayette Co in 1786 came Bourbon, and out of that in 1789 came Mason Jefferson Co VA had Nelson Co in 1785 Lincoln Co VA had in 1786 Madison and Mercer. So when KY became a state in June 1792 there were 9 counties which had been in Virginia. Does that help any? Anyway, tax records can be found on these first counties that were part of VA Hope I got it right. As far as TN goes.... By the way, my ancestor in 1774 on Holston River - found under Washington Co VA records (land near Bristol, TN today)......but his 1780 land records on Cumberland River (today Nashville, TN) are found under NC records. Mary [email protected]