Michael, The rent rolls are lists of names of people who are renting land as opposed to owning it. There are some for some other counties in VA, also MD and other states which were colonies. The lists may be from the landlord, such as Lord Fairfax, a Proprietor, or it may be a county list used to collect taxes from those tenants responsible for paying the taxes on the land. I'm not sure exactly which kind the Fauquier ones are. The main thing to know is that if your person appears on that list, the land that entry pertains to is not owned in fee simple (as we would normally sell property today). This doesn't mean he doesn't own ANY real property. He may own some land but also rent other property as well. -Nancy -----Original Message----- From: Cecinit@aol.com [mailto:Cecinit@aol.com] Sent: Friday, February 20, 2004 9:16 PM To: VAFAUQUI-L@rootsweb.com 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 ______________________________