These suggestions I sent to the person in Illinois who is seeking her ancestor. A good many genealogists find some information about our colonial Virginia ancestors by studying the land patents which are online at the library of Virginia website. Maybe you can use land records to find out more about your Dale family (and any other Virginia family). Note that Fauquier Co. was formed ca 1759 from Prince William Co., so you may have to search PW Co. also. I accessed the URL given at the bottom of this e-mail and noted that there are 52 entries for the surname Dale--some pertaining to folks who were neighbors of a Dale male [generally--a few females got land patents], particularly if allied with wealthy families. These land patent [abstracts] are arranged chronologically, with the latest date first. Beginning about Item 32, you will find some Dale males whose names are mentioned in Virginia land patents in earlier times. If a library near you is fortunate enough to have all eight volumes [bound books] of the series called Cavaliers and Pioneers, you may want to scour the indexes in those books. Not only are there surnames with given names, but also the index includes watercourses [creeks, runs, swamps, etd.], neighbors, paths, and lots of information to keep you occupied for decadesp--at least, in my case!!! However, except for the very first volume of C&P, there are no patents, to speak of, for Northern Neck land grants, such as Fauquier Co. There is a separate set of books by Gertrude E. Grey, Virginia Northern Neck Land Grants [four volumes, arranged chronologically]. Ask your librarian a LOT of questions: 1. What genealogical reference books do you have? (The Source, The Red Book, etc.) What books on Virginia records do you have? 2. Do you have ANY volumes of the series called Cavaliers and Pioneers? The online database of land records is helpful, but, if you tend toward books, as many of us do, then you want to get acquainted with Cavaliers and Pioneers--and any other book on Virginia ancestry which you can track down!!! 3. Does the local library have access to the online genealogical database called HeritageQuest [only libararies can subscribe, as I understand it]? If so, then ask whether you can remotely access HQ, say on your home computer? If the local library does not have HQ, ask whether a library in an adjoining county has this database. If so, then try to obtain a card [with a number, which is your password] from that *foreign* library. Some people are able to pay an annual subscription fee to that library, and then can access HQ at home!!!! There are censuses, not all indexed; books, Rev. War pension claims of about 1832, and PERSI. Read about PERSI--or communicate online with the Allen County [Indiana] Public Library which publishes PERSI 4. Ask about interlibrary loan. Although most libraries do NOT lend their genealogical books, a librarian tells me most college and University lib raries do lend their books. So ask!!! Here is the library of Virginia website for land records: Note there is a difference between Northern Neck land grants and patents for the rest of Virginia. See if you can find an explanation on the website. Rootsweb will *wrap* the URL in punctuation marks. Remove the dashes or parens before pasting into your search blank. _http://www.lva.lib.va.us/whatwehave/land/index.htm_ (http://www.lva.lib.va.us/whatwehave/land/index.htm) E.W.Wallace who loves land records, which have helped me solve many relationship problems. **************************************See AOL's top rated recipes (http://food.aol.com/top-rated-recipes?NCID=aoltop00030000000004)