Commentary on Sources
As you will discover as you are reading I make a practice of capturing notes sent to me and incorporating them into the database. Be aware that I will do this with any useful information that you send me and will make every attempt to retain the identification of the source to ensure your credit. If you find a note or item which identifies you as a source and you wish it removed, contact me and I will do so immediately. If you find a note that came from you and I have failed to credit you adequately, please notify me and I will correct that circumstance.
I would like to thank my many correspondents for their contributions and if you come by to visit a year or two later you will find that I capture the notes I am sent and keep them in a folder called "unused" and when I find the correct place to place them I merge them in and edit if necessary because of space. I then move the note to "used". This means that I periodically regurgitate a 3 year old note and add it into my reports because I have finally found the correct place for it. Don't be surprised by the sudden appearance of an old email, regrettably the eamil address may no longer be valid.
As a guide to the user my experience suggests that I can connect up about one fourth of the individuals who contact me with their line. What this means of course is that there are still many Andersons whose families blossomed, some from the branches documented herein and others as new arrivals in Virginia in the last quarter of the 18th century. I have begun my work searching from the earliest and easternmost families along the bay and working westward in an attempt to connect up family groups. However many families living in the in the last quarter of the 18th century have still escaped my grasp. I do not collect on individuals born later than 1800 from families other than my own line, so please do not ask me to provide information on recent generations.
I began my collection during the 1970's when I was attempting to locate the ancestor of Armstead Anderson of Union County, Kentucky. I had a number of papers related to him, including photocopies of his bible and a transcript of his Revolutionary War Pension application, which is an excellent starting point. I had the advantage of looking for an unusual name rather than the common John, James, William and Thomas of colonial times.
In the process of making this search I often visiting the National Archives in Washington, D.C. the Library of the Daughters of the American Revolution, Memorial Continental Hall, 17th Street N.W., Washington, D.C. and the State Library of Virginia and I began collecting Anderson Family notes in Virginia records. In later years I added visits to the State Libraries of Maryland, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Georgia and to many of the south side Virginia Counties. I discovered early on the genealogical work, done by William Pope Anderson in the 1930's and 1940's on the Hanover County Anderson family.
I was successful in finding the origins of my Armstead Anderson in south side Virginia, but in the process I gathered a large volume of notes on Anderson Families of Colonial Virginia from other regions. I noted that most of my work in sorting out the families of Thomas Anderson and Reynard Anderson of south side Virginia was complimentary to and did not overlap the work of William Pope Anderson. In combination these works comprised a significant start in describing the relationships of the James River district of Virginia. I decided to share these resources with other researchers through the construction of this web page.
In order to present the information in an organized fashion that allows the internet researcher to access the data I have both presented the families as I and others have organized them in register format for the reader and included fundamental record sets of census, taxes, marriages, and land patents of colonial Virginia for the researcher to review. The record sets are linked to the family files, and although it would be possible to link to the individual himself, the frequency with which I update the family files precludes that.
Sources
In order to build this data base I have made use of the Virginia Land Patents extensively. My preliminary work was from the indices of:
Cavaliers and Pioneers, Abstracts of Virginia Land Patents and Grants, 1623-1666, Nell Marion Nugent, Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., Baltimore, Maryland, 1983.
Cavaliers and Pioneers, Abstracts of Virginia Land Patents and Grants, 1666-1695, Nell Marion Nugent. Virginia State Library, Richmond, Virginia, 1977.
Cavaliers and Pioneers, Abstracts of Virginia Land Patents and Grants, 1695-1732, Nell Marion Nugent. Virginia State Library, Richmond, Virginia, 1986.
Since these texts were published the State Library of Virginia has digitized the original land patent and made them available on line. These can be accessed by the user at Virginia Land Office Patents and Grants and Virginia Land Office Patents and Grants - Northern Neck. For those not familiar, because of commitments by the King of England to Lord Fairfax grants made in the northern counties of Virginia were recorded in their own record set allowing Lord Fairfax to collect the money there from.
These patents provide an excellent source for determining where these men settled and lived and when used in combination with county formation data allow the tracing of family groups westward across Virginia as the frontier advanced. In my notes I commonly just list the given name of the Anderson who received the patent, the date, and county, a short description and the page and volume of the record.
A surviving rent roll of 1704 provides us with a break point between the struggles between immigrants and Indians of the 1600's and the business of gobbling up land which occupied the gentlemen of Virginia in the 1700's. For this I have used:
The Quit Rents of Virginia, 1704, Annie Laurie Wright Smith, Virginia State Archives, 1957.
I have attempted to trace the descendants of each man in this 1704 rent roll.
William Pope Anderson was a genealogist of the 1930's who made a considerable effort through correspondence to document the family of Richard Clough Anderson of early Kentucky. He published three books which contain a wealth of genealogical data on Anderson families.
Anderson Family Records by William Pope Anderson, Cincinnati, Ohio, 1936.
Anderson - Overton, A Continuation of Anderson Family Records (1936) The Early Descendants of William Overton and Elizabeth Waters of Virginia, and Allied Families, by William Pope Anderson, 1938.
Early Descendants of William Overton & Elizabeth Waters of Virginia & Allied Families, by William Pope Anderson, Cincinnati, Ohio, 1945.
William Pope Anderson in Anderson Family Records 1936, The Early Descendants of William Overton and Elizabeth Waters of Virginia, and Allied Families, 1938 and Anderson - Overton 1945 documents the descendants of Robert Anderson of New Kent County. His interest lies with the family of Robert Clough Anderson of some historical fame. Robert C. served with Washington's Army (infamous at the battle of Trenton) and had a son who commanded Fort Sumter at the outbreak of the Civil War. He was considerate enough to collect and document family trees on Anderson families other than Robert's and although his text is tedious to study it contains a wealth of genealogical information. A notation in the latter volume states that copies may be obtained from "Charitable Relief Association", 203 West Third Street, Cincinnati 2, Ohio. However that reference has clearly expired. Both the Virginia and Tennessee State Libraries have had these books, although not all three. The first and third are available from genealogical reprint book stores.
The Andersons of Goldmine, by Edward L. Anderson
Edward L. Anderson wrote The Andersons of Goldmine, which is in the Library of Congress. It contains a family tree for the Robert Anderson family of New Kent. It was used as a source for some of William Pope Anderson's work and he quotes it where applicable. It is the best source for family traditions.
Climbing the Family Tree by Bessie Lamar Anderson Calvert
Climbing the Family Tree by Bessie Lamar Anderson Calvert is an additional source for this family. It contains considerable detail, particularly regarding the female descendants of the families. However, some of its data is questionable. I found this in the Tennessee State Library and the Library of Congress.
Ye Andersons of Virginia, pages 231-288, Volume 11, Old Northwest Genealogical Quarterly, Columbus, Ohio, 1908
I have used all of these texts to develop information about the York River Anderson family. These volumes are short on proofs of these relationships and need to be supplemented with hard research in surviving records of these counties, However it is important to remember that many records of these counties were destroyed in Civil War action.
Two early publications that listed many early American families was also a useful source for expanding my collection beyond; the south side families I had researched myself; and the works of William Pope Anderson. This was:
The Magazine of American Genealogy, Number 6, January 1930, The Institute of American Genealogy, Chicago, Illinois.
This volume gives a synopsis of families published by prior researchers as of the date of the magazine.
The Compendium of American Genealogy,, Edited by Frederick Adams Virkius, Genealogical Publishing Company, Baltimore Maryland.
These volumes give Ahentafels for many genealogists who researched their families in the first half of this century.
Three publication series of significant interest to the Virginia genealogist and historian are:
Tyler's Quarterly Historical and Genealogical Magazine, Editor Lyon G. Tyler, Richmond, Virginia.
The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography.
William and Mary Quarterly, Ist, 2nd, and 3rd Series, Editor Lyon G. Tyler, Richmond, Virginia.
These volumes contain many records and discussions of Virginia colonial families. A general index of these is available referred to as SWEM's index and I frequently make use of it to determine what is already published throughout the state this century. My access to these volumes is at the Lloyd House, 220 N. Washington Street, Alexandria, Virginia, 22314.
I have developed a private collection of south side Virginia abstract records which have enabled me to add considerable substance to my register reports of south side families.
Cavaliers and Pioneers, Abstracts of Virginia Land Patents and Grants, 1623-1666, Nell Marion Nugent, Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., Baltimore, Maryland, 1983.
Cavaliers and Pioneers, Abstracts of Virginia Land Patents and Grants, 1666-1695, Nell Marion Nugent. Virginia State Library, Richmond, Virginia, 1977.
Cavaliers and Pioneers, Abstracts of Virginia Land Patents and Grants, 1695-1732, Nell Marion Nugent. Virginia State Library, Richmond, Virginia, 1986.
The Quit Rents of Virginia, 1704, Annie Laurie Wright Smith, Virginia State Archives, 1957.
Autographs, 1701/2, Elizabeth Lawrence Dow, Richmond, Virginia, 1976.
English Duplicates of Lost Virginia Records, DesCognets, Princeton, New Jersey, 1958.
Surry County Records, Surry County, Virginia 1652-1684, Eliza Timberlake Davis, Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., Baltimore, Maryland, 1980.
Wills and Administrations of Surry County, Virginia, 1671-1750; Eliza Timberlake Davis, Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., Baltimore, Maryland, 1980.
Surry County, Virginia, Wills, Estate Accounts and Inventories 1730-1800, Lyndon H. Hart, III, Southern Historical Press, Inc., Easley, South Carolina, 1985.
Charles City County, Virginia, Court Orders, 1687-1695, Benjamin B. Weisiger, III, 1980.
Charles City County, Virginia, Records, 1737-1774, Benjamin B. Weisiger, III, 1986.
Charles City County, Virginia, Wills & Deeds, 1725-1731, Benjamin B. Weisiger, III, 1984.
Register of Albemarle Parish, Surry and Sussex Counties, 1739-1778, Gertrude R. B. Richards, The National Society Colonial Dames of America in the Commonwealth of Virginia, 1958.
Prince George County, Wills and Deeds, 1713-1728, Benjamin B. Weisiger, III, 1973.
Prince George County, Wills & Deeds 1710-1713, Compiled by Benjamin B. Weisiger III, 1992
Births from the Bristol Parish Register of Henrico, Prince George, and Dinwiddie Counties, Virginia, 1720-1798 Churchill Gibson Chamberlayne, Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., Baltimore, Maryland, 1980.
Marriages of Henrico County, Virginia, 1680-1808, Joyce H. Lindsay, Southern Historical Press, Inc., Easley, South Carolina, 1983.
Colonial Wills of Henrico County, Virginia, Part One 1654-1737, Benjamin B. Weisiger, III, 1976.
Will Book 1, Amelia County, Wills 1735-1761, Bonds 1735-1754, Gibson Jefferson McConnaughey, Mid-South Publishing Company, Amelia, Virginia, 1978.
Will Book 2X, Amelia County, Virginia, Wills 1761-1771, Gibson Jefferson McConnaughey, Mid-South Publishing Company, Amelia, Virginia, 1979.
Will Book 2, Amelia County, Virginia, Wills 1771-1780, Gibson Jefferson McConnaughey, Mid-South Publishing Company, Amelia, Virginia, 1980.
Amelia County, Virginia, Will Book 3, 1780-1786, abstracted by Bel Hubbard Wise, Mountain Press, P.O. Box 400, Signal Mountain, TN 37377-0400, undated.
Amelia County, Virginia, Will Book 4, 1786-1792, abstracted by Bel Hubbard Wise, (no publisher listed but apparently) Mountain Press, P.O. Box 400, Signal Mountain, TN 37377-0400, undated.
Amelia County, Virginia, Will Book 5, 1793-1799, abstracted by Bel Hubbard Wise, Mountain Press, P.O. Box 400, Signal Mountain, TN 37377-0400, undated.
Deed Book 1, Amelia County, Virginia, Deeds 1735-1743, Bonds 1735-1741, Gibson Jefferson McConnaughey, Mid-South Publishing Company, Amelia, Virginia, 1981.
Deed Book 2, Amelia County, Virginia, Deeds 1742-1747, Gibson Jefferson McConnaughey, Mid-South Publishing Company, Amelia, Virginia, 1982.
Deed Book 3 and Deed Book 4, Amelia County, Virginia, Deeds 1747-1753, Gibson Jefferson McConnaughey, Mid-South Publishing Company, Amelia, Virginia, 1988.
Marriages of Amelia County, Virginia; 1735-1815; Compiled by Kathleen Booth Williams; reprinted for Clearfield Company, Inc. by Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc. Baltimore, Maryland; 1996.
Chesterfield County, Virginia, Wills 1774-1802, Benjamin B. Weisiger, III, 1986.
Abstracts of Cumberland County, Virginia, Will Books 1 and 2, 1749-1782, Katherine Reynolds, Southern Historical Press, Inc., Easley, South Carolina, 1985.
Early Wills, 1746-1765, Lunenburg County, Virginia, Katherine B. Elliott, 1963, Southern Historical Press, Inc., 1983.
Early Wills, 1765-1799, Mecklenburg County, Virginia, Katherine B. Elliott, 1963, Southern Historical Press, Inc., 1983.
Early Settlers, Mecklenburg County, Virginia, Volume II, Katherine B. Elliott, 1963, Southern Historical Press, Inc., 1983.
Old Homes and Families in Nottoway, W. R. Turner, The Nottoway Publishing Co., Inc., Blackstone, Virginia, 3rd Edition, 1982.
Westover Church and Its Environs, Kirkland Ruffin Saunders, W. M. Brown & Sons, Richmond Va., 1937.
Colonial Churches of Tidewater Virginia, George Carrington Mason, Richmond, Virginia, 1945.
Life by the Roaring Roanoke, Susan L. Bracey, The Mecklenburg County Bicentennial Commission, 1977.
The MIDI file of "The Voice of By Gone Days" (lyrics) by Stephen Collins Foster (1826-1864) is used by permission of Benjamin Robert Tubb from his website at Public Domain Music http://www.pdmusic.org.
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