Drawing upon numerous resources to obtain a legible copy, Jack Hockett has restored to the genealogical community the very first deed book for Washington County, Virginia. The importance of this work cannot be over-emphasized. For at least a brief few years, this deed book was vital to establishing residents not only in Washington county itself, but also outside the confines of today's reduced Washington County, including Russell, Lee, Scott, Wise, and Tazewell Counties. It includes numerous references to early migration to Tennessee and Kentucky. Also from the new work comes references which demonstrate that no more than twenty percent of the earliest settlers in the region were from direct migration westward by pioneers from the eastern English counties; the greater majority were scattered among areas like the Northeast (Pennsylvania, New Jersey, etc) as well as numerous settlers from North Carolina. This is a very important work for documenting the earliest land deeds in southwestern Virginia. Hockett has examined not only the deficient 1953 film of the book, but he has elicited numerous reputable sources to fill in the blanks as well as confirming much material from the fragile original copy in Abingdon.
Thomas Jack Hockett and Donald Helton
2012, index, 335 pp.
107-WDB1
