I do not want to pick a fight. I live far away from Virginia and only visit there when I can afford to travel and when every one in the household is in good health, but that is not the case these days. However, at a genealogical conference in Richmond some years ago, one of the now-retired archivists at the Library of Virginia explained the disappearance of some of the records, say, of Hanover Co., a critical county in my research. When the Confederates were surrounded at Richmond toward the end of the Civil War, they set the wharves on the James River afire. As fires are wont do to, this one [or these ones] got out of control and burned the archives at Richmond, and among the holdings were Hanover Co. records!!! I cannot speak about other Virginia counties. Sometimes, the official papers seem to reappear!!! I have a recently published book of Fauquier Co. tithables wherein someone in the courthouse discovered a long-covered-up booklet of such lists. As one noted lecturer-genealogist-editor explains in her lectures, The papers we genealogists want are usually in the basement or the attic of some unknown repository!!! Wear old clothes to the courthouse, she cautions. Another lecturer tells of prying people [genealogists] finding official records tossed out by clerks who need more storage room. Having visited courthouses across the nation, I can understand the need for more storage. Having lived near wild fires for about 30 years [I have since moved] and understanding how fast they move and destroy, this explanation bout the Richmond fires sounds plausible to me. Many a time I have packed a car with some goods and papers and been told by the Sheriff to evacuate!!! If one listens or reads unbiased historians, they, like social scientists, recognize that all humans have good and bad faults. Some of us are tilted one way or the other in many cases. E.W.Wallace</HTML>