> Rockingham County was formed in 1778. I checked the 1810 census records > >Rockingham. Do you think some the records for early 1800 may be there? You might want to keep an open mind & eye about where the land records are. I have been struggling with land records at the northern end of the valley, where Frederick, Berkeley, Jefferson Cos have a long term historical link. Not every deed record seems to be in the county you think it should be in by calendar. Also, there are deeds missing, and it appears that some of them might be filed in the circuit court (or whatever the wider-area court was called ca 1800-1820). I am not sure what the law was exactly about deeds, and there are probably some deeds that are just unrecorded or filed long after the actual transfer, but that I haven't yet seen, nor have I looked at the deeds filed in the higher level court yet. The process, from what I have seen of the court records, suggests that everything passed thru a court at some point, that during this early period there was no separate recorder's office with notarized deeds and simplified filing &c. The process is indistinguishable in those northern counties from other civil-like (chancery &c) cases.

I believe that there is a possiblity that adeed might not be filed until the property is sold outside the family; i.e., if son inherits and then son inheritsk etc. It is always necessary to check deed indexes. And yes, I have heard of deeds filed in other places. If the grantee lived in another county, there might be a copy of the deed in his home county. I have one family that lived in Bath, Augusta and Botetourt and never moved. This was due to county border changes. Pat At 03:51 PM 9/9/2004, [email protected] wrote: > > Rockingham County was formed in 1778. I checked the 1810 census records > > > >Rockingham. Do you think some the records for early 1800 may be there? > >You might want to keep an open mind & eye about where >the land records are. I have been struggling with >land records at the northern end of the valley, where >Frederick, Berkeley, Jefferson Cos have a long term >historical link. Not every deed record seems to be >in the county you think it should be in by calendar. >Also, there are deeds missing, and it appears that >some of them might be filed in the circuit court >(or whatever the wider-area court was called ca 1800-1820). > >I am not sure what the law was exactly about deeds, >and there are probably some deeds that are just unrecorded >or filed long after the actual transfer, but that I haven't >yet seen, nor have I looked at the deeds filed in the >higher level court yet. > >The process, from what I have seen of the court records, >suggests that everything passed thru a court at some point, >that during this early period there was no separate >recorder's office with notarized deeds and simplified >filing &c. The process is indistinguishable in those >northern counties from other civil-like (chancery &c) cases. > > >==== VAAUGUST Mailing List ==== >**************************************************************** >List Administrator >Barbara Stanley - [email protected] >****************************************************************