The earlier the year, the harder it is to find specific birth dates. Baptism dates narrow it down, if there are any in Augusta/Botetourt that early. For men, one of the best ways I've found is when they show up on the personal property tax list -- that indicated they had become adults. If their father died while they were young, sometimes the court records will state their age. Or you can tell the age by when they no longer have a guardian. Look at the 1800, 1810, 1820 census and figure a general date from their age there. Find when they got married and figure a general date from that. Work all of those together and see where they overlap -- that's the possible birth date. Good hunting, Lynne Hundley Oh, another one. If their father gave consent for their marriage, they were under age. If he didn't, they were adult. You can figure when they were born from that: "bef. 1769" or "aft. 1785", for instance. With women it's much the same, except a little harder because they don't show up on the personal property list, unless they are widowed. And they aren't named on the census. So you have to use several records in a row and figure out which unnamed person they were. When you figure it out the best that you can, you list their birth date as "abt. 1767" or "bet. 1764-1768" and give your rationale, something like: "based on age at 1820 census and date of marriage." > Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I can find birth dates for > children born in Botetourt County in the period 1766 to 1778? > > Larry Milnes > > > ==== VABOTETO Mailing List ==== > The Botetourt Co, VAGenWeb site is located at URL > http://www.rootsweb.com/~vaboteto/botetot.htm >