In this reviewer's opinion, nobody should even think of attempting research in Virginia, whether genealogical or historical, without constant, detailed use of the Cavaliers and Pioneers series. Without dwelling-over much on research problems that beset a Virginia investigator ("burned counties" and a peripatetic population of same-name individuals), it is safe to say that this series is a crucial resource no matter what the research project. The present volume, which brings the land-grant abstracts up to the dawn of the Revolution, is a worthy--and important--addition to the series, for the period covered is the last era of relative calm before the war disrupted personal lives, migration routes, and settlement patterns. The volume is well and accurately indexed, its abstracts are usefully comprehensive, the Introduction is informative, and directions to original volume-and-page numbers are given should the researcher need to examine them on microfilm or on the Library of Virginia's web page. The personal-name index is useful, of course, but the place-name index is a bonus treasure. Using it, one can reassemble a group of people who lived along the same creek, surround that creek with nearby landmarks and thereby expand one's understanding of the larger neighborhood, and identify the "next" jurisdiction to investigate as counties were subdivided and new ones formed. If an ancestor lived on Buffalo Creek of the James, for example, it is certainly helpful to recognize that the land he patented in Augusta in 1768 was augmented by a 1772 grant in Botetourt--and that together the tracts comprised the same hundred-and-eighty acres he devised in his 1784 Rockbridge will. Although this volueme and its predecessors may not belong on the shelves of every genealogist, they most assuredly belong in the colletion of every serious researcher with ancestors known (or suspected) to have lived in Virginia.

Helen F.M. Leary, CG, FSAG