Kathy,
What you have said is quite interesting to me.  I am researching in Lexington, 
VA.  The slave family I am looking for lived at Clifton House in District 7 and 
it was a large property. At the death of the owner, Capt. John Alexander,1853, 
parts of the property were sold and only 17 acres and Clifton House were 
retained.  In 1860 the widow Elizabeth listed about 9 slaves and 2 dwellings. 
Her son John McDowell Alexander listed 8 slaves and 1 dwelling.  They both lived 
at Clifton. 


In 1870 the freed family was living in the Town of Lexington District in a 
separate house, but in 1880 they were living in a shared dwelling with three 
other non-related families Supervisors Dist. 4, enumeration Dist. 65.
Is it possible, based on your experience in the field, that there might be a 
record of where those dwellings were on the Clifton property or if the land that 
was sold, whether subdivisions for houses /tenant homes were created? (Thinking 
this through!)
Aurelia

 

________________________________
From: Westview <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Thu, May 19, 2011 10:06:59 AM
Subject: Re: [VA-ROOTS] How To Determine an Actual Site from Census?

Aurelia,

What you also see are many tenant farmers, especially former slaves, living on 
plantation land. There was a lot of turnover which complicates things.  Did the 
people you're looking for ever buy the land?  That's when you get into deed 
plotting -- a program like Deedmapper will help with that (I plotted by hand for 
20 years -- trust me, Deedmapper is worth the money!) 


Here on our 1832 plantation we have encountered an interesting situation -- 
based on Slave Schedule data we know there were six slave cabins here.  While we 
have yet to excavate the area (my husband and I are professional 
archaeologists), we're pretty certain we know where the original "slave row" was 
located but there are no remains of cabins there.  However, we have located the 
remains of four cabins scattered across the property and based on 1870 census 
data, oral history, and other documentation we know former slaves were living in 
them.  Since it is very doubtful that the cabins were so dispersed during 
slavery, it appears they were moved after the war to allow the occupants their 
autonomy while they continued to work on the plantation for wages.  Many of the 
farms around us have similar "tenant" houses.  They have never had street 
addresses even though some of them were occupied as late as the 1980s.  Here in 
Charlotte County we did not have actual road names until 1998! so it can be very 
tricky :-)

As to maps, you didn't mention which county you're looking at but the Civil War 
era Gilmer maps are extremely helpful.  They don't exist for all the counties 
and the ones that do don't have the names of all the households but they can be 
very useful in conjunction with the search method I outlined. 


One caveat:  in the 1910 census for Charlotte County all the white families were 
ennumerated and then the black families on separate pages making it almost 
impossible to create a "map" of the area.  It is the only time and place I have 
encountered this.  I wonder if this is an anomaly or if other listers have found 
this in other counties?

Good luck!
Kathy



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