The number of records available for any one family name from the colonial days of Virginia are very few. The Bobbitt family has

The Bobbitt Family In America

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The number of records available for any one family name from the colonial days of Virginia are very few. The Bobbitt family has 13 positive records between 1673 and 1740. There are no records dated before the William Bobbitt land grant of 1673. All of the subsequent records follow the migrations of persons and the tides of history from 1673 to the present day in our Bobbitt family.

In an effort to find the history of our family we have some basic guides that may also help us to discover the genealogy of our family.

1. Life expectancy for a male before the year of 1800 was about fifty to fifty five years of age.

2. Males generally were considered mature at 16 years of age, and married between the ages of 17 and 20.

3. A husband and wife would have children for a period of 20 years after their date of marriage.

4. The size of a family with children who lived to maturity, seldom exceeded 6 or 7 even though as many as 10 or 12 children may have been born to a family.

5. Land grants were made to young men who were able to clear and cultivate the land, build a home, and rear a family. Most land grants were requested after a man was married and before he began to rear a family.

6. The English law of primogeniture favored the male. Land left by a deceased father went to the eldest son. Valuable property other than land was often sold and the money divided among the remaining heirs.

7. Land deeds of persons purchasing land were between the ages of 20 and 35. Land deeds of persons selling land were sold by persons who were likely 45 years of age or older.

8. It was unlikely that a man who lived to maturity, married, reared a family, and provided support for his family, would miss being recorded in some legal record of the county. During a life time a person was certain to be in one of the more common records such as, tax lists, land deeds, census records, wills, militia lists, marriage bonds, tithables, or church records.

With these guides in mind, and the blessing of an unusual family name we can find our place in history and our relationship to each other. Research, study, error, corrections and comparisons will in time recover what we have lost.

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