Carole D. Bryant asked about these three methods of acquiring land in colonial Virginia. You could, of course, also inherit land. Deeds and wills provided the two methods by which people could obtain land from other people. People could also obtain land from the king during the colonial period or from the state government after independence. Grants and Patents are actually two words for the same thing. During the colonial period the books that record government grants of land to private people or to land companies were called Patent Books, after independence they were called Grants. There is a good brief history of the origins of patents and grants and of the process in the introduction that Robert Armistead Stewart wrote for volume one of Nell Marion Nugent, Cavaliers and Pioneers, Abstracts of Virgina Land Patents and Grants (Richmond, 1934), which the Library of Virginia has repeatedly reprinted. It should be available in any library where Virginia family history is being researched. Brent Tarter The Library of Virginia [log in to unmask] Please visit the Library of Virginia's Web site at http://www.lva.virginia.gov To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-roots.html