William, In 1977, I handcopied the Land and Personal Property Tax Records of Hanover County that commenced in 1782, for all of the families of Via, Peace and Turner that are listed [lines of Turner and Peace are my proved ancestors also]. I have recently purchased the abstracts of all records from Antient Press that comprise three books and continue through 1796. I copied each year until 1883, when my direct Via line lost connection to Virginia and came to Texas after a brief stay [by relative standards] in Tallapoosa County, Alabama. I imagine these records are available through Interlibrary Loan today. When I copied them, the first years commencing in 1782, were available on positive reel #137 from the VA State Archives through my Life Membership in Ex-Students Ass'n. of the University of Texas here in Austin. I spent many hours and days in the university library viewing film on an old microfilm reader, but I must declare that the quality of the images viewed on that old reader that had to be turned by hand were far superior than what I see today. Because I had to manually turn to find the names [two districts---St. Paul's and St. Martin's---few Vias were ever in St. Martin's Parish], I believe that I didn't miss any years and names. The names were alphabetized which does not help us at all in determining neighbors, but in 1782, the enumerators dated the visits to each land owner. I copied all the names listed commencing on April 19 and continued through April 26. On April 25, Wm Barnes - 100 acres; Auleas '[?]' Lane - 70 acres; Cyrus Via [later I learned that Josias and sometimes Joseph were aliases, and I don't know why; I once thought these were three different men but they are not] - 100 acres; Gideon Via - 100 & 75 [two parcels] acres; Robert Via - 63 and 65 acres; Littleberry Via - 113 acres [note that all Via men had roughly the same amount of land; differences could be that some acres were more highly valued, and they were, than others]; Matthew Hill - 26 acres; Sarah Hill - 50 acres; Elisha Hazelgrove - 184 acres; Nathan Thacker - 75 acres; Wm. R. Burnett - 30 acres; Elisha Burnett - 43 acres; John Burnett - 65 acres; James Goodwin - 300 acres; Wm. Cunningham - 50 acres; James Brown - 200 acres; John Holliday - 73 acres; Wm. Holliday - 73 acres. It is obvious that the enumerator was stopping off at each place as he came to it. On April 26, he visited John Street, Goodman, White, Jordan, Susannah LeMay, Wm. Turner, John McDugle, Ann McDugle, John Turner, Ann Turner, Jedediah Turner, Joseph Peace, Nathaniel Turner [my ancestor] and John Garland. Their acreage is listed, of course. On April 24, Jack, Jeremiah, Mary, Edmund and Littleberry Wade, Jr., James Turner, Charles Talley, John Pasley [Parsley], Turner Slaughter, Minoah Lipscomb, John Barker were enumerated with their respective acres. If any of these land deeds did not go up in flames in Richmond when the Confederates set fire in advance of the Yankee forces and are extant for that year, 1782, then we should be able to determine where the land of the Vias that owned land in Hanover during that time period was located. I have based the fact that these men were probably brothers who inherited their respective acres and were sons of the original Robert Via, son of Amor Via because they are listed in the enumeration one after another which speaks of a division of land from one parcel. My applications to membership in various lineage organizations with exacting standards of proof have been accepted [along with other evidence, of course] based on this precept; i.e., that these four men were brothers and sons of Robert. I am not looking at the St. Paul Vestry book, but I believe I remember that many of the names enumerated in 1782, were in Robert's precinct in the 1750's. After his death, in the same precinct or in slight shifts because of population growth, some of these men are also listed. To answer your specific question, William, distance from courthouse does not commence until 1814, and adjacent land owners are not listed until 1813. However, there are many notes made in the margins for various individuals during the years, especially notes related to land transfers either through sale and/or inheritance. Amor Via's land was in the eastern end of the county near the New Kent County line. I don't know if it be possible to determine positively its location, but we know approximately where it was. I know it was not far from that of son, Robert [I concur that William probably inherited or was given Amor's 50 acres], land that I know precise location [sale of some of it in 1933]. In early 1700's people married their neighbors if they stayed put so Robert didn't marry far from where Dad lived, and he grew up and worked. I think he probably married a heiress. He ended up with many more acres of land than Amor ever had. The Personal Property Tax records are especially revealing because every male is listed [sometimes commencing with age 16 and sometimes commencing with age 21, the most common; the law changed through the years] either separately or if he were in the household of another, he was listed in that household. Through the years it is easy to determine that most Via men left Hanover because their names disappear from the Personal Property Tax [a virtual poll tax] record. Littleberry and the second Robert are my ancestors, and Littleberry is listed with sons Littleberry and William in 1782, which also gives indirect information about Littleberry's age. Sons Littleberry and William disappear from the records before 1790. The sons went somewhere. Gideon had son Edmund, who had 10 sons, but only one, James, remained in Hanover that I am aware of. This would account for different degrees of kinship. DNA, correct? Janelle