Although Mr. Summers' genealogical masterpiece covers the territory west of the Blue Ridge Mountains, including areas now in Kentucky and West Virginia, the work focuses primarily on the Virginia counties of Botetourt, Fincastle, Montgomery, Washington, and Wythe, including the present-day West Virginia counties of Boone, Cabell, Fayette, Greenbrier, Kanawha, Lincoln, Logan, McDowell, Mason, Mercer, Mingo, Monroe, Putnam, Raleigh, Summers, Wayne, and Wyoming. Documents featured in the Annals include minutes of the county courts, marriage licenses, abstracts of deeds and wills, surveys of lands, and lists of soldiers. In addition, there is an exhaustive list of Revolutionary War soldiers from Southwest Virginia, compiled from the most reliable sources. Numerous illustrations and three large fold-out maps add to the book's considerable authority. The unusual length of the work--1,757 pages plus numerous unnumbered illustrations and maps--has compelled us to reprint the work in two parts rather than in a single, ungainly volume.