Good Morning, Via Group!!! While living in Virginia I visited Hanover Courthouse many times. It is rather small compaired to the other counties. New Kent is very small, only one small building. Both counties were among those who sent their records to Richmond during the Civil War for safe keeping. The rumored story is that towns people of Richmond burned the buildings containing the records to keep the Union from getting their records. Anyway they were destroyed. Only two deed books survied in Hanover, only because they had fallen off the wagon on the way to Richmond and were found on the way back. So the records contained in both courthouses is after the Civil War. But should not stop us from finding out the line of Robert Via. As most of you know you are looking for various spellings of the name. While in New Kent County in the 1990's working out the Courthouse, I was told that their was a Via who worked at the Courthouse Complex. I say Complex because there were several small buildings each holding different offices. This was common at some of the older counties that still had their original buildings. Anyway, the young lady, apparently single, was in the Voters Registration department. I went there and talked with her. The last name was Vier, I commented on the spelling and she said her grandfather had told her that her family had always lived in New Kent County. If this is so her family would have been a descendant of William Amer Via. At that time I knew very little of the Via's, I was working on the Maupins, Fosters and Jones families. By working a combination of all the records available we could piece this line of Hanover and New Kent Co. back together. William Amer's actural farm is now located in Hanover Co., just east of Hanover Courthouse. There has to be a burial ground there since he died in an time when most people were buried on their own land. I have mention doing research on this with Judy recently. I would like to do a group effort to prove this line. Records are available but it would take a combination of many different types of records to locate the farm and prove the lines coming down. Personal Property Tax Records for Hanover County are available, some may have already been copied by members of the group. Land Tax Records also are probably available, from 1782 to the 1870s. Cemeteries records of Hanover County will need to be checked for this reason. Some years ago there was a lady, I believe in Texas, who said her Via line had lived on the original William Amer farm until the 1880s when they moved to Texas. This deed of sale would be available, also the names of the current owners could be located by a deed search. This would put us in the neighborhood or perhaps on the the exact farm. If there is a cemetery on the farm it will probably appear in a cemetery book of Hanover County. Once we get the name of the Via owners in the 1870-1880 we can trace the Land Tax Records backwards to 1782. By compairing these name to the Personal Property tax we can establish which Via line stayed on the original farm. I have done this type of reserch before, it t! akes a lot of time and a lot of patience but it is better if you have several people working and discussing the results to insure that the research is accurate. With several different points of view you will insure the accuracy of your work. Question yourself and question others working on the project. I will check the catalogue of the Library of Virginia for the Land Tax Records. I have already made a list of the Personal Property Tax records available and plan to order the rolls within the next month. If we could form a group of 5-10 people, each one taking a particular section and posting our findings we could do the work much quicker and more accurately. In fact two people working on the same section would be great to insure the accuracy because one might see something the other has overlooked. This would be a great way to check our work. Locating the records of the lady in Texas would help also. She may be deceased by now. That is what I have found to be true when I need someone research. While in Virginia I visited many people doing interviews. When I visited one Ballard family he was 92 she was 80's. He died two months later and she died six months later. I was so glad I did now wait any longer. Is anyone interesting in joing a group to work on this project?? Judy, would you head this project for us? William Albertson [email protected]