I am trying to find any records of the birth and parentage of my great-, great-grandfather, Mr. David Peters. He was born in Virginia in May, 1842, although I have never been able to establish exactly WHERE in Virginia he was from. My question concerns the fact that, since his name was "Peters", he might have been from a plantation in the Petersburg area, hence his surname. My belief is that he was not born "free", nor were his parents. Its's probably a dangerous assumption, but having hunted around, via the Internet, various county "seats" of Virginia, I have found nothing. I have even been ignored by some to whom I have written! Is Virginia unfriendly to the proposition of helping Black genealogists? If so, I find that most unfortunate!

The Internet provided me with a most interesting document containing names of Petersburg Emancipated slaves, which was something I had never seen before. It gave me a bit of excitement, because I had hoped that, perhaps, I might find Mr. Peters listed among the names! No luck...at least, not this time!

If you can direct me to a fertile source of information regarding Black people born in Virginia in 1842, free or slave, I would greatly appreciate a "heads-up"!

Thanks for your time.

Paula Duvall

RISENABOVEIT@AOL.COM