Eddie, Your comment (scan down) is absolutely true.. The law applied to ALL who were on land for which a grant or other claim had not been obtained through legal channels.. In many cases they lost their cleared land and cabins to those who had obtained the larger land grants and included them in their surveys.. Daniel Boone made surveys in Ky. on land bought by Jusge Henderson from the Cherokees and neither N.C. or Va. accepted the purchase as legal.. Va. sent surveyors in to determine the boundaries for the land people had purchased from Henderson and found many farms overlapped and someone had to lose land.. It took several years to get the mess straightened out.. Boone moved on to Missouri (which was under Spanish control at the time) and he lost his land there too.. He was later awarded land by congress, I believe... However, I have not heard of any law in the Commonwealth of Va..since 1875 which prevented anyone from owning land or attending school, and that seems to be the period being discussed.. Eddies' Comment: >>I think what happened is close to what the Indian experienced. It was a difference in law and culture. White man law said you have to survey and apply for a grant. Basically buying a title to the land. If the Indian or Melungeon was on the land but a white surveyed it they could legally take it. Daniel Boone and those he sold to lost a lot of land the same way. So it is not discrimination or victimhood, it is a matter of following the law. -eddie<< G. Lee Hearl Authentic Appalachian Storyteller Abingdon, Virginia