Originally published: Cincinnati, Ohio: Betterway Books, 2000.

Owing to the total destruction of the county courthouse in 1869, few records of Buckingham County, Virginia survive. From documents in the Virginia State Library and the University of Virginia's Alderman Library, and from materials still in private hands, the compiler of this book has amassed a genealogical record of the county--not continuous and complete, since that would be impossible, but a rich selection of the kind of materials that would have been in the old courthouse. Highlighting the work is a collection of family sketches.

From the William and Mary College Quarterly Historical Magazine.

Composed almost entirely of abstracts of wills, deeds, marriage records, powers of attorney, court orders, church records, cemetery records, tax records, guardianship accounts, etc., this unique work provides substantive evidence of the migration of individuals and families to Virginia or from Virginia to other states, countries, or territories. Although primarily concerned with Virginians, the data are of wide-ranging interest. England, France, Germany, Scotland, Barbados, Jamaica, and twenty-three American states are represented, all entries splendidly tied to court sources and authorities. Each record provides prima facie evidence of places of origin and removal, irrefutably linking individuals to both their old and their new homes, and incidentally naming parents and kinsmen, all 10,000 of whom are listed in alphabetical order in the indexes. It is a safe observation that half of the records, having been exhumed from the most improbable sources (some augmented by the compiler's personal files), are the only ones in existence which can prove the ancestor's identity and origin.

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

This comprehensive study—an honorable mention in the 1971 Frederick Jackson Turner Award competition— traces the emergence and development of the Republican and Federalist party organizations in Virginia and shows how the old oligarchic system based on wealth, influence, and social prestige remained strong in that state after the formation of the new nation. The book covers details of the Virginia Antifederalists' continuing hostility to the federal Constitution, James Madison's switch from the Federalist party to the emerging Republican party, Madison's and Jefferson's attempts to coordinate Republican opposition to Federalist foreign policy, and the Republicans' successful campaign in 1800 to replace President John Adams with a Virginian. Richard R. Beeman's central concern is the style of political life in Virginia and the effect of that style on national party alignments, and his findings demonstrate that the mode of political conduct displayed by Virginia's leaders proved increasingly self-indulgent and dysfunctional by 1800.