You will find some information on the early Graves families of Virginia in one of the older issues of Wm & Mary Quarterly and probably in one of the volumes of Virginia Genealogies published by Genealogical Publishing Co. (I have it on CD-ROM, but in switching to a new computer [CPU], I find the computer does not want to read any of Family Archive Viewer disks!! Such a shame! Maybe we will get the reader repaired one of these days.) Anyway, a small tip--Look in all the seven volumes of Cavaliers and Pioneers (colonial land grant abstracts of Virginia) for the name Graves and then try to find Harrises in the same vicinity--generally the watercourse. An early Henry Graves was in Hanover Co., VA, and some "orphans" of Henry Graves--names William Graves and Elijah Graves--are found in Louisa Co. records (colonial era). Elijah died testate, I believe, in Mecklenburg Co., VA. Generally, in genealogy you should work backwards from what you know to what you don't know, so that you don't connect up with the wrong families. However, I find that even that time on unsuccessful research is not wasted--I learn about the time and the place. But, maybe you are in a hurry! Some of us have been at this hobby for decades! Henry Graves of early Hanover Co. is linked--I don't know whether they were brothers or not--to one Ralph Graves whose wife was --- Womack. The will of one William Womack in Goochland Co. will tell you more about the wife of Ralph Graves--and her several sisters--and one brother, William Womack, Jr. Henry Graves bought some land in Goochland Co., and some of those records have been abstracted by Benjamin B. Weisiger III and are on microfiche at FHL in Salt Lake City. They can be brought to your local center for 15 cents apiece. (He also did some abstracts of Henrico Co. and several other counties.) Also, if you have any idea of the Virginia origins of your ancestors, you may want to examine Virginia Historical Index by Earl G. Swem--which is on at least a hundred microfiche in all LDS family history centers, I am told. I know it is in the LDS center which I use. Again, this is an index only, and you will have to note in the preface what journals (and the VA Calendar of State Papers) these names appear. Good luck to you. Oh, yes, if there is an LDS center near you, purchase the Research Outline for Virginia. It needs to be updated, but still it will give you some ideas of where to search--and what is on film. Also, at LDS centers there is available on CD-ROM for $5.00 the catalog for the Fam Hist Library at Salt Lake City. That library has MANY films for all the counties in Virginia, not to mention on Virginia itself. E.W.Wallace a great user of LDS facilities

[email protected] wrote: > Also, at LDS > centers there is available on CD-ROM for $5.00 the catalog for the Fam Hist > Library at Salt Lake City. That library has MANY films for all the counties > in Virginia, not to mention on Virginia itself. You can access their catalog online at: http://www.familysearch.com/Eng/Library/FHLC/frameset_fhlc.asp Ann -- Ann Avery Hunter Richmond, Virginia mailto:[email protected]