The "headright" system, widely used for acquiring land in Virginia was never recognized in Virginia's Northern Neck. People wanting to acquire land there had to purchase a warrant and obtain a survey before they were issued a grant. The original Grant Books, now on microfilm, were used in making this collection of abstracts, and they generally provide the following information on some 5,000 Northern Neck residents: the name of the grantee, dates of warrant and survey, date and location of grant, amount of acreage, names of former owners/occupiers, names of adjacent property owners, and often the names of heirs and other family members.

This book presents the history of the Northern Neck grants for the present-day counties of Alexandria, Loudoun, and Fairfax, Virginia. Stetson's comprehensive work still stands as the literal bedrock for dozens of historical studies of Alexandria, Arlington and Northern Virginia. It describes the history of the tracts (in terms of the inhabitants and subsequent deeds, chancery cases and other related documents) up to the late 1800s. It also contains some genealogies of early landholders. Chapters are grouped within four sections: The Howsing Patent, Washington Forest, Simon Pearson's Patents, and The Ball Patents. An index to full-names, places and subjects completes this work.

This second volume in the series has abstracts of all of the grants from 1742 to 1775, a period that saw the formation and settlement of Frederick, Fairfax, Culpeper, Loudoun, Fauquier, and Dunmore (changed in 1778 to Shenandoah) counties in Virginia, and Hampshire and Berkeley counties now in West Virginia. Altogether, in more than 4,000 abstracts, about 7,500 early Virginia residents are cited, all of them listed in the index.

Charles Woolverton emigrated from England sometime before 1693 and settled in New Jersey. He married Mary in about 1697. They had nine children. Descendants and relatives lived mainly in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, Virginia, Ohio, Indiana and Michigan.

On one of Kathy’s visits home that fall, she asked her mother, “What is our heritage?” To which her mother replied, “Why honey, you’re a Texan!” I am not sure that was the answer Kathy was looking for, but, to my knowledge, she never questioned her mother’s response. However, at that time I decided that some day I would research our Kale Family history so Kathy would know her family heritage beyond being a proud Texan. I hope she and her children, Julia Marie Routh and John Michael Routh, will come to appreciate their German heritage after reading about the Kehls who came to America in 1731. They and their descendents helped form this great nation.