In a message dated 7/7/00 2:06:54 PM Eastern Daylight Time, [email protected] writes: > 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? In the last year I've done both RIchmond and Rocky Mount (county seat of Franklin). It depends on what you wnat and how long you have. Richmond has EVERYTHING as far as official records. You can get many counties all in one place. Also they have the personal property tax listings for every year up to 1850 for I guess all counties (all I looked for anyway). Those have been VERY helpful to me because my folks didn't own land. At the courthouse in Rocky Mount they did not have copies of personal property taxes at all. The above having been said, Richmond is a pain because everything is on microfiche, including the indexes that tell you what other microfiches to use to find things. For deeds and marriages Rocky Mount was much easier, faster, and better on the eyes. For deeds, Rocky Mount has the copy that was transcribed by the court clerk. I didn't do deeds in Richmond, because I'd already done them in Rocky Mount, but I think that in Richmond they probably have the original deed as hand written by whoever wrote it. Also in ROcky Mount I went to the local library, where they had the Raney Collection (notes of local genealogist, very helpful). Richmond doesn't have that kind of stuff I don't think. Karen Worley