Jeanine,
in regards to your question about children being bound out.  I have reviewed 
many, many court records specifically for Russell county VA for the late 
1700's and 1800 time period.

I am keenly interested in children being bound out because my paternal 
several times great grandfather was bound out.  From my research of the 
court records I have concluded that the practice of binding children out was 
most often done so that the child(ren) could apprentice to a trade.  
Sometimes the older children (between 10-14) were asked by the court to 
choose who they wished to be bound out to but I only found 2 instances of 
this.  Most often the child was bound to a person in the community in the 
skilled trades.  In return for the labor that the child provided they were 
given food, shelter and (sometimes) clothing.
The families of the children being bound out were poor and in many cases the 
children were orphans or the father of the family had died and the mother 
could not provide for the children.  The court appointed an Overseer of the 
Poor who looked into these cases and reported to the court.  The records 
kept by the Overseer were recorded in a book and unfortunately this 
particular book has disappeared from the Russell county courthouse.
At any rate I hope this helps.

Sincerely,
Lane Alexander




>From: Jeanine Scholz <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: Jeanine Scholz <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: FW: [VA-ROOTS] Bound out children
>Date: Wed, 20 Jun 2007 12:30:37 -0400
>
>This information is very helpful and makes it clear that you cannot assume
>that a bound out child would always go to a relative.
>
>I understand from looking at earlier postings that the vestry records must 
>be
>looked at as well as the county court records if I hope to gain more
>information on my ancestors in Frederick Co, VA.
>
>The Library of VA has the Frederick Parish Vestry Book apparently. I am not
>close to VA so cannot just go there to look at the records. I will see if I 
>can
>order the book through LDS.
>
>Thanks again for the clarification.
>
>Jeanine

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