Hi, The Virginia Room at the Roanoke City Library is a great genealogy research facility and the librarians are good help. Roanoke's closeness to Franklin and Montgomery Counties makes this even better. The archive room in the Montgomery County Courthouse in Christiansburg is wide open to the public with ledger-size xerox machines. Christmastime this year, I noticed that the original tax receipts from 1776-1790's were sewn into a binder and just out on a shelf in the back. Wow, what a resource. Also, the old Fincastle County, VA records are stored there. Franklin County I don't know as well but Rocky Mount is a little town. At any rate, Christiansburg is about 40 miles west of Roanoke and Rocky Mount is about the same distance south. All-in-all, I've never had a better time that those spent at the Virginia Room. It is good for all of VA. Richmond is better but you can spend forever looking for something. For time well spent, consider Roanoke. Please ask others if they agree with me. Good luck, Ed [email protected] wrote: > I am planning a research trip to find information on families that lived in > Montgomery, Franklin are surrounding counties before 1804. > > After 1804, they moved from VA. > > I have never been to the particular counties or to Richmond, VA for research > for my ancestors that lived in those counties. > > I have been doing most of my research regarding those counties on the web. > It's time to hit the road, I think. I will have about 4 weekdays to do > research. > > Does anyone have an opinion on what locations to do first. The counties in > question, or Richmond. Would the counties have more or different information > than Richmond, or vice versa. > > Does anyone have an opinion? > > Thanks > Linda (researching the Thompson and Doerty families) > > ==== VAMONTGO Mailing List ==== > This list's archives may be searched by going to URL: > http://searches.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/listsearch.pl?listname=VAMONTGO