"Virginia's Descendants" compiles information on Virginia immigrants from many different sources into one file, using the Family Tree Maker 2006 (Version 16) genealogy program. We do not compile mere lists of names and dates, but include all the interesting material we locate on the immigrant and his descendants. The information we gather includes court cases; residences; employment; education; deeds; descriptions of homes; physical traits; personalities; transcriptions of wills; personal correspondence; and even contemporary reports of gossip circulating about individuals during their lifetimes. And we offer this colorful genealogy file to the descendants of Virginia immigrants for a fraction of what it would cost them to obtain the material on their own.

Richard Bernard emigrated from his native England to Virginia before 1647 when he rented from the executors of William Pryor, a plantation in York County called "Pryor's Plantation." To the deed is attached a rough drawing by the clerk of a shield bearing a bear 'rampant, which is the coat-of-arms common to the Bernards of Buckinghamshire. He died in York County in 1650, leaving issue.

Of the 558 surnames included, other than Bernard, those appearing ten or more times: Adams, Alexander, Ambler, Bagby, Baker, Bradford, Bruce, Chamberlayne, Cobb, Cocke, Dabney, Daniel, Davis, Davison, Dimitry, Evans, Fauntleroy, Fenwick, Gordon, Greene, Hall, Heale, Hewitt, Hite, Holliday, Hull, Jackson, Jones, Lackland, Lee, Marshall, Mason, McBride, Meredith, Miller, Milner, Morgan, Murdock, Payne, Pedigo, Perrow, Powers, Prince, Robb, Robinson, Rootes, Ruffin, Rutherford, Scott, Smith, Swartzwelder, Talbot, Taliaferro, Taylor, Terry, Throckmorton, Turner, Viley, Ware, Washington, Whitner, Willis, Woodward and Wright.

IMPORTANT NOTE: The information on the FTM Backup CD must be restored to Family Tree Maker 2006 for Windows 98/ME/XP to be accessed.