>If you have kin in Virginia's Northern Neck, check here. This item came >from Dick Eastman's current column. > >Carmen Finley > >----------------------------------------- > > > - Virginia Grants Online Database > >Steve Knoblock has obviously been toiling on a labor of love. He >has created an online database listing land grant records as >originally abstracted in Northern Neck Grant Books. The database >is available free of charge on the Web. > >The original hand-written Northern Neck Grant Books fill 37 >volumes. These records were abstracted some years ago and >published by the Fairfax County government in a single volume >called "Beginning at a white Oak. Patents and Northern Neck Grants >of Fairfax County, Virginia." The book is now out of print, and >there are no plans to republish it. Steve Knoblock has been >manually entering each abstract into a spreadsheet on his >computer; the index fields from this spreadsheet are now available >on Steve's Web site. The database is searchable by name, surname, >grant date, grant book and issuer. > >I decided to try this for myself. I first searched for my own >surname but didn't find any listings. I guess the family never >made it to that part of Virginia. I then tried some more common >surnames and found lots of results. Here is one such listing: > > Clark, Richard, . 94 11 Sep 1779 I:366, {Proprietary} > >With this information I can look at the original grant books, >either in person or on a rented microfilm copy. I should be able >to quickly find the full record as recorded by the clerks in 1779. >The data usually found in the books would include the name, >surname, tract size, date of grant, grant book, grant issuer and >the surveyor's description. > >The home site for the search is at: >http://whiteoak.home.att.net/index.html. Grant Books and the >search are available at: >http://whiteoak.home.att.net/landgrant/nn_grant_books.html while >direct access to the database is at: >http://www.city-gallery.com/whiteoak/landgrant.cgi >