Most of the time when I have seen that on either census records or tax lists it means JOHN OF WETHERS JEFFRIES John is the son of Wethers Jeffries, as opposed to a different John Jeffries. There might be three young men named John Jeffries, one of Wethers', one of John's, and one of William's...so the enumerator tried to clarify which one. The same would hold true for WILLIAM OF CHAS JOHNSON William would be a Johnson, but the son of Chas as opposed to the son of William Johnson. As to why the 1800-1890 census shows 1770 Rent Rolls, I have no idea. The rent rolls can be better explained by someone other than me, but a link to an interesting sort of "dissertation" that appeared on a mailing list might be helpful to you. http://genforum.genealogy.com/va/bedford/messages/812.html It speaks of the Quit-Rents and an Edit drop down menu, Find Quit-Rents will drop you down to that area. The whole posting is enlightening, so you might wish to read all of it. ----- Original Message ----- From: <Cecinit@aol.com> To: <VAFAUQUI-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Friday, February 20, 2004 9:15 PM Subject: [VAFAUQUI] Early "rent rolls" > I found on Ancestry some strange entries in > their database "Virginia Census 1800-1890". > > Apparently it contains some real early data, > from quit rent rolls. Here's a sample: > JOHN OF WETHERS JEFFRIES VA Fauquier County Rent Rolls 1770 > WILLIAM OF CHAS JOHNSON VA Fauquier County Rent Rolls 1770 > > There are also some similar entries for some other > VA counties (years vary). Ancestry's info on their > database doesn't contain anything that would help > me identify this data. Nor have they answered queries > about it. > > Where did they get it? Who holds the originals of these > rent rolls? > > What do the "of <X>" items mean? There are > many of these; most of the time, <X> looks like a surname, > but some are ambiguous like one of the examples. > > Any help or advice appreciated. Thanks, ==mwh > > Michael Helm > Richmond CA > > > ==== VAFAUQUI Mailing List ==== > 2,500 Discussion Lists!!! USGenWeb and The USGenWeb Archives! > Special thanks to go to RootsWeb,your generous donations to > RootsWeb makes this all possible. Find out more! > http://www.rootsweb.com/rootsweb/how-to-subscribe.html > RootsWeb Gen. Data Coop. Box 6798 Frazier Park, CA 93222 >