We are fortunate to have good records back to the 1500's and very clear records from when the family came to Virginia in the early 1700's. We were Italians that were in England for a few generations before coming here. A large part of our records came from research done in the 1950's and 60's by a family member that traveled from one court house to the next gathering records and contacting living relatives/cousins for their records. He and his wife did this in their retirement years. He was a former editor and researcher before retirement and made this into a full genealogy book.
Many of the family branches can be easily followed by records of births, deaths, marriages, buying/selling land, litigation, adoptions etc...Lots of war records. One of the oldest entries was a letter to the Church of England griping about the preacher basically among other things. Signed by all the parishioners (men only) and several of them had to make their mark (X)
on the document. Interesting stuff...
