Thank you very much - I thought that was probably what it meant - that the church vestry were basically the 'law' - and made sure that everyone paid their fair taxes, that widows and orphans were not left to starve, etc. It is very dull reading, but filled with genealogy data! After I did a search on Ancestry for the book, I came up with a huge number of hits and then found that my ancestor was on the vestry, thus he is mentioned every time it met! or almost every time - and then his son takes up where he left off. Thanks again... this and the road books have answered a lot of my questions. Diane << What would a vestry have to do with this? >> Before the Revolution, there was not yet separation of church and state in Virginia. The Anglican church was the official state church and as such had many responsibilities we now associate with civil government, such as taxation, care of the poor and sick, guardianship of orphans, road maintenance, etc. The Vestry was a group of church leaders [men], chosen for life or until resignation, which administered all this civil business in addition to the purely church business [paying clergy, building churches, maintaining the glebe [the main church property in the parish] etc]. Indeed, the parish was, I think, a far more important governing entity in the everyday lives of people then than was the county. Does this help? ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to VAHANOVE-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message -- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.409 / Virus Database: 268.13.21/511 - Release Date: 11/1/2006