I found something hot yesterday that I did not know existed. I was almost ashamed when I found it, for the fact that I did not realize it was there all of this time. I consider myself an expert on the holdings of the Library of Virginia, I even volunteered there for almost a year. I just could not believe that I missed their project for scanning chancery court records. These are free, online records for anyone to use. Be warned that the records can be very long, some more than 1,000 pages, and they can get very addictive!
Here is the deal, the Library has scanned several counties and are working on the rest. If you do not know, a chancery cause is basically a court case where there is no clear cut law to decide who is right or wrong in a civil case. All of the evidence is gathered and presented to a judge who rules on that evidence. This can include old wills, deeds, Bible records, letters, anything to help win your case. I will give an example of a chancery cause that I found in my family...
Ann's husband died and she sold twenty acres of their farm to one of their freed slaves. Twenty years later, after Ann's death, one of her children decided that they wanted the twenty acres back but the freed slave had sold the land to a white family ten years ago. They all go to chancery court and the judge rules that Ann had no right to sell the property because 2/3 of it belonged to the heirs of her husband. Furthermore the freed slaves had no right to purchase property so the sale was doubly invalid. The white family had to give the land back to Ann's estate and had no recourse since the original sale was not valid. That is a true chancery cause as no clear-cut law applied to the situation. It took a judge's understanding of the laws to come to a conclusion.
Anyway, the Library of Virginia has already scanned the causes for the following areas:
These areas are in the process of being scanned at this time:
You can check out the records at this link: Library of Virginia Chancery Causes
Here is the deal, the Library has scanned several counties and are working on the rest. If you do not know, a chancery cause is basically a court case where there is no clear cut law to decide who is right or wrong in a civil case. All of the evidence is gathered and presented to a judge who rules on that evidence. This can include old wills, deeds, Bible records, letters, anything to help win your case. I will give an example of a chancery cause that I found in my family...
Ann's husband died and she sold twenty acres of their farm to one of their freed slaves. Twenty years later, after Ann's death, one of her children decided that they wanted the twenty acres back but the freed slave had sold the land to a white family ten years ago. They all go to chancery court and the judge rules that Ann had no right to sell the property because 2/3 of it belonged to the heirs of her husband. Furthermore the freed slaves had no right to purchase property so the sale was doubly invalid. The white family had to give the land back to Ann's estate and had no recourse since the original sale was not valid. That is a true chancery cause as no clear-cut law applied to the situation. It took a judge's understanding of the laws to come to a conclusion.
Anyway, the Library of Virginia has already scanned the causes for the following areas:
- Alexandria City
- Caroline County
- Fauquier County
- Hanover County
- King & Queen County
- Lancaster County
- Middlesex County
- New Kent County
- Northampton County
- Prince William County
- Rockbridge County (some)
- Shenandoah County
- Staunton City
These areas are in the process of being scanned at this time:
- Amelia County
- Cumberland County
- Page County
- Rockbridge County (some)
You can check out the records at this link: Library of Virginia Chancery Causes
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