We recently accessioned this book at the Mary Ball Washington Museum & Library in 
Lancaster, Virginia.  We purchased it from Genealogical Publishing Company.  

So far, I can only give this book rave reviews.  Our more serious patrons are pawing 
over it, and it has already come in quite useful for at least one of my clients.  Ms. 
McCartney deserves the Academy Awards of Genealogy for this monumental effort.  She 
combed a lot of often-overlooked sources but better still, did an outstanding job of 
organizing the material in each biography.  Separating common names apart from one 
another is perhaps the most amazing feature of each of her biographies.  All the 
references she has cited have so far all been 100% correct.

This is a "must have" book for anyone building or adding to their Virginia Genealogical 
library.  In pitching this book to the library committee, I described it as the companion 
book to Dorman's "Adventurers of Purse and Person."  Anyone and everyone who left a 
record in Virginia prior to 1635 is in this book.  

Some caveats:  The book does NOT include people merely named as headrights and who 
are never heard of again.  Nor should it.  And keep the title of the book in the mind.  Her 
vast research only extends to 1635, and no further.

PREVIEW THE BOOK.  You can preview sections of the book as well as the entire index on 
the genealogy.com web site (Genealogical Publishing Company).  Don't let the index fool 
you.  For example, the name JOHN DAVIS is all under one name in the index and 
references to only a few page numbers.  But it those few pages that contain the 
biographies of about six different John Davis's, whom she has skillfully separated into the 
individual people they all were.

Again, I can't say enough good things about this monumental work of historical and 
genealogical art.

Craig Kilby

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