Cynthia, I was looking at the original hardcopy tax records in Charlotte County this week and noted the letters you mention. Although they look like "sf," they are actually "Lf" and in some cases "Lfree." This stands for Land free and is used to denote people that paid taxes on personal property but no longer owned land. They are not found in the land books. Another combination seen is Fn" or simply "F" to denote a free negro. Where county names are noted it indicates the individual owned taxable property (real, personal, or both) in Charlotte but actually resided in the noted county. Hope this helps! Kathy Liston ----- Original Message ----- From: "Cynthia Dahl" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Friday, March 21, 2003 12:12 PM Subject: [VA-SOUTHSIDE-L] Charlotte Co. tax records > When looking at the 1829 and 1830 Charlotte Co. Personal Property Tax > records I noticed that my John Thompson had the letters "sf" after his name > in parenthesis. When I looked through the entire record I noted that others > also had letters or names in parenthesis, generally "P.E." Prince Edward? > or spelled out "Halifax" or "Mecklenburg". > > Does anyone have an idea of what "sf" would stand for? > > I've scanned a few and put them on my web site at > > http://www.deschool.org/cynthia/ > > Thanks!!! > > Cynthia Dahl >