You wrote: Does anyone have any information about Mary Anne Kennon who was the wife of Samuel G Richardson? She was born about 1815 and married Samuel in about 1831 they lived in either Goochland or Fluvanna County. I have tried for many years to find her parents. Thanks Pat Response: In response to your question, I wonder whether you might find the three volumes of the so-called The 1787 Census of Virginia of help in locating the parents of your Kennon lady? (The lady herself seems to have not been born yet.) Although the date of this resource is earlier than the marriage you list, Kennon seems to be a relatively unusual name for Virginia in that time period. If it is not, then consider that other Kennons [may be misspelled--look for Cannons also] may be relatives. Frequently, we are looking in the wrong place when we do research. People--and county boundaries--were constantly changing. The so-called 1787 Census of Virginia is a compilation by Netti Schreiner-Yantis and Florine S. Love. It is NOT a census, but in many ways, it is superior to the 1790 published censuses which I have viewed. There is a personal property [not real property] tax list of nearly every county in Virginia in 1787, including what is now Kentucky and what is now West Virginia--and whatever other territory Virginia claimed in 1787. (She claimed a lot!! But that may have been earlier.) This is how I use these books--when I am at a library which has these three volumes. The 3rd volume is the index to the preceding two thick volumes [small print with a lot of white space for columns]. I go to the index, photocopy the pages which contain my surnames--looking for variant spellings, as invariably the names are misspelled. (Even names ending with s have the final s dropped, putting the name in a different Soundex code.) Then I use these photocopies of the index pages to locate families on every page which is listed in the index. Even though they may not be my people--who knows? By being more careful the later times I used these books, I found my Harris ancestor had personal property in two jurisdictions--Albemarle Co., VA and Madison Co., KY. It was the latter place where he died, but still he must have owned property in Albemarle Co. because there is a probate case there and furthermore, his widow, gave power of attorney to the eldest son of the second family to care for the legal matters in Albemarle Co. I think the reason we fail to find our relatives is that 1) we don't watch the misspellings and 2) we are looking in the wrong places. People were always moving--tobacco wore out the land, and the second and younger sons may not have inherited the land in Virginia. The 1787 Census may be hard to find in most libraries. You may have to seek a genealogical library--or even the Library of Virginia or the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. The latter library may be less costly to order material. If you search the Form section on _www.familysearch.org_ (http://www.familysearch.org) [use the find toolbar], you will find a drop-down menu on the left side [eventually]. Click on *sort by title* Then click on R - when an alphabet appears. Request for Photocopy is what you are requesting. Follow the instructions, which are pretty clear, but read carefully. Fill out that form, send a check, and WAIT. It used to be that priority was given to these mail-in requests to FHL, but the FHL has had huge layoffs a few years ago. So things might be a mite slow. Perhaps the Allen Co. Indiana Public Library at Fort Wayne, IN may have these volumes, and they do a mail-order process. They have a website and brag that they are one of the largest genealogical libraries in the United States. What you are asking for are copies of the index pages for the surnames you seek in Virginia about this time period. I hope you find your people. After several decades, I am still searching for a LOT of mine. I generally stumble over them when looking for someone else!!! E.W.Wallace I am sending this to Harris-hunters rootsweb, as many Harrises were in Virginia at this time ************************************** See what's free at http://www.aol.com.