===================================================================== ANCESTRY QUICK TIP ===================================================================== "GETTING OUT" PAYS OFF This week's article on "Getting Out" reminded me of one of the most exciting finds I made for my elusive Stewart family in Virginia. After my mother's death, I was visiting her sister in Virginia. We went to Hanover County just to drive around and get a feel for the place. Neither my mother nor my aunt ever lived there; they were born and grew up in Richmond about twenty-thirty miles away. Nevertheless, we both knew that her father (my grandfather) had been born in Hanover, as had his father. The county figured prominently in the War Between the States where two different campaigns went through Hanover County. Because of this, I decided to check with the Park Service Office for a map, mostly as away of orienting myself within the county confines. There were two--one cheap in black & white, another four times more expensive in color. I opted for the cheap one. Imagine my delight that evening at my Aunt's house when I opened this large map to find three Stewart farms with earthworks running through two of them! That answered another question that was lingering in the back of my mind. Why was my great-great grandfather worth over $3000 in the 1860 census (a considerable sum at the time) and living with his son and worth only $150 in the 1870 census? Having your land fought over and the house possibly shelled (if not fired and destroyed) will leave you much worse off than "before the Yankees came." I still haven't found my great-great-great-grandfather's father, but I am convinced that I will by reading all I can from whatever sources I can find, and by visiting all the places that I can within these (now) United States. Lynda de Nijs ____________________________________________________________________ Copyright 1998-2005, MyFamily.com, Inc. and its subsidiaries. Reprinted with permission, "Ancestry Daily News"