For the past month or so I’ve been researching the Robert and Elizabeth Shanks line, trying to figure out where in Ireland they came from. So, today I did a cursory search on the Library of Virginia’s catalog to see if they had anything that mentioned the Shanks family. First item to come up: the Shanks family papers, 1824-1853, including lots of deeds and other miscellanea. There’s an accompanying historical note that confirms that Robert emigrated from Ireland with his wife Elizabeth and he was a carpenter at first, but also did lots of land deals. Then I found the Baxter family papers, for William H. Baxter (who married Robert and Elizabeth’s daughter Matilda) and his father. Finally, I did a search through the legislative petitions and found a petition dated 5 Dec 1820 which reads, “Petitioner: Shanks, Robert & William; Locality: Chesterfield County; Description: Natives of Ireland and nephews of William Shanks who died intestate in Sept. 1816 ask for a law releasing to petitioners the Commonwealth’s right to a tract of land in Nansemond Co. and a house and lot in Blandford. Includes declaration of citizenship.” As you can imagine, that’s a goldmine. Now I know that there’s a William who is Robert’s brother or cousin, and there’s a William Shanks already in America by 1816 (and probably a while before then) who is their uncle. There’s a William Shanks I’d seen in the personal property tax lists from 1800 on but I didn’t know if he was related or not. Now I’ve just got to get my hands on the actual record so I can see that declaration of citizenship and find out where in Ireland my Shanks family came from. There are a William, Robert, and Elizabeth Shanks in Granville, North Carolina, about the same time, and for a while I thought they were the same (that Robert and Elizabeth even have a Robert, Jr., just like ours), but they’re not.