The book rings with the names of early inhabitants and prominent citizens. For the genealogist there is the important and wholly fortuitous list of tithables of Pittsylvania County for the year 1767, which enumerates the names of nearly 1,000 landowners and property holders, amounting in sum to a rough census of the county in its infancy. Additional lists include the names, some with inclusive dates of service, of sheriffs, justices of the peace, members of the House of Delegates, 1776-1928, members of the Senate of Virginia, 1776-1928, clerks of the court, and judges.

By: Lela C. Adams, Pub. 1986, Reprinted 2014, 274 pages, Index, ISBN #0-89308-581-2. Pittsylvania County was created in 1767 from Halifax County, VA. It was a important migration path for early settlers moving into Tennessee, Georgia and North & South Carolina. Many of her early settlers were from Pennsylvania, including Germans, Quakers, Welch and Scot-Irish. Also many families through out Virginia relocated here from such counties as: Brunswick, Charlotte, Amelia, Prince Edward, and other Tidewater counties. This book contains not only wills of individuals, but also guardians and administrators bonds; bastardy, apprentice, trustees, sheriffs and treasurers bonds, and inventories of estates. The names of approximately 14,500 persons are found in these legal records of this important county.

By: Katherine Elliott, Pub. 1967, Reprinted 2016, 178 pages, Index, ISBN #0-89308-377-1. Lunenburg County was created in 1746 out of Brunswick County, VA. The earliest records in Lunenburg County cover this entire area. The records included in this volume have been abstracted from wills and administrations found in the back of Deed Book I and Will Book I & II. Because some of the early records of Lunenburg County do not seem to have been preserved, the compilers have included in this volume some 20 pages of records abstracted from ORDER BOOK 1-6. These notes from the order books give names of deceased persons not of record in the will books, and names of orphans and other notes pertaining to the period covered in Volumes 1 and 2 of these reprints. Also found is a listing of marriages taken from Deed Books and other vital records, as well as apprenticeships, guardianship and much other valuable data important to the person searching this area of Virginia. There are more than 2,200 names of persons found in the above records listed in the full-name index.

As the country enters a new era of conversations around race and the enduring impact of slavery, The Hairstons traces the rise and fall of the largest slaveholding family in the Old South as its descendants—both black and white—grapple with the twisted legacy of their past. Spanning two centuries of one family’s history, The Hairstons tells the extraordinary story of the Hairston clan, once the wealthiest family in the Old South and the largest slaveholder in America. With several thousand black and white members, the Hairstons of today share a complex and compelling history: divided in the time of slavery, they have come to embrace their past as one family. For seven years, journalist Henry Wiencek combed the far-reaching branches of the Hairston family tree to piece together a family history that involves the experiences of both plantation owners and their slaves. Crisscrossing the old plantation country of Virginia, North Carolina, and Mississippi, The Hairstons reconstructs the triumphant rise of the remarkable children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren of the enslaved as they fought to take their rightful place in mainstream America. It also follows the white descendants through the decline and fall of the Old South, and uncovers the hidden history of slavery's curse—and how that curse followed slaveholders for generations. Expertly weaving stories of horror, tragedy, and heroism, The Hairstons addresses our nation’s attempt to untangle the twisted legacy of the past, and provides a transcendent account of the human power to overcome.

Information was transcribed or abstracted from many counties in Virginia. Some information is included for North Carolina, Mississippi, Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama.