The earliest Turner families in Fauquier County, Virginia, were William, Edward and James Turner, who each in 1747 made leases for Three Lives with Peter Hedgman. Willliam Turner's lease was for the term of his life and the lives of his two sons, John Meridy and William. The seven chapters of this book contain the seven generations of the descendants of John Meridy Turner (1747-1815). Each chapter begins with a summary of the Turner family in the particular geographical area being dealt with in each generation. This Turner family lived in Fauquier and Shenandoah Counties, Virginia; Licking County, Ohio; Scotland and Clark Counties, Missouri; Clackamas County, Oregon; and Columbia County, Washington. The Modified Register system is used for the genealogy and all statements are fully documented in notes at the end of each chapter. There is significant information included on the allied lines of Brown, Cooke, Crown, Martin, and Smith. The book is illustrated with ahnentafel charts, maps, tables, land tracts, and photos. A full-name index makes the book easy to use. Anyone who has worked on the Turner family in Virginia knows the difficulty of working on a common-place name. At least three other Turner families were living in Fauquier County during the same time period that John Meridy Turner was there. This book will help you in learning what resources are available and how to proceed if research has led you to these Turners. Research on this Turner family extended over twenty-eight years. The author won the National Genealogical Society Family History Writing Contest in 1987 and has previously published four books of abstracted records with Heritage Books.