Virginia Chancery Records, A Rich Resource in a Challenging Time Period
Virginia’s online Chancery Records are a rich resource for genealogical researchers. Beginning as early as 1748 and generally running into the 1900s, these documents often contain relationships listed that may not be found anywhere else. And a large number of them are online and are indexed (basically). But, you say, what is a Chancery Record? The following is taken from the Virginia Memory website that houses the online collection of Chancery Causes:
“According to Black’s Law Dictionary, a chancery cause is a case of equity where “Justice is administered according to fairness as contrasted with the strictly formulated rules of common law.” In layman’s terms, a chancery case was one that could not be readily decided by existing written laws. A judge, not a jury, determines the outcome of the case. These types of court documents are useful when researching genealogical information and land or estate divisions and may contain correspondence, lists of heirs, or vital statistics, among other items. Cases in chancery often address estate and business disputes, debt, the resolution of land disputes, and divorce.
A chancery case began with the bill of complaint, explaining the background of the action, followed by an answer from the parties being sued. Court appointed commissioners decided a fair and equitable settlement of the case based on the evidence presented and reported their findings to the court. The court’s decision or final decree was the last step in the proceedings of a chancery case. Cases in chancery could be heard in any court.”
The Bill of Complaint was in the form of a letter that outlined the claim of the person(s) against the defendant(s). These letters often state the names of multiple persons, usually family members, and explain relationships between these people because the case was often regarding property of some type that the “complainant(s)” are arguing for. Sometimes there are depositions included. Sometimes you will find a will. But almost always you will find relationships.
In my own research Chancery Records have been gold mines of information. Women are represented often in these records where they are not in many other records of the time. Women’s maiden names are often stated because the cases are trying to prove rights of inheritance, etc.
An excerpt from an 1821 case that I found is shown below. This case listed the children of Thomas Keene and their spouses:
“To the worshippful court of Northumberland county, sitting in chancery humbly complaining, sheweth unto your worships your Orators & oratrixes Thomas Oldham & Sarah G. E. His wife who was Sarah Gaskins Edwards Keene, Betsy McAdam Keene, Ann Keene, Jenetta Keene and John N. T. G. E. Keene ^infants under the age of 21 years & the children of Thomas Keene by Thomas Oldham their next friend… sometime in the year 1789, the said Thomas Keene father of your oratrixes & yr ortr Jn.o N.T.G[,] E[,] Keene did by a deed of gift convey to his children y.r oratrixes Sarah, Betsy & to another of this children Joseph McAdam Keene (who departed this life intestate & under age)…”
Source: Northumberland Co., Virginia, Chancery Court Records 133_1851_010, Thomas Oldham, Thomas Keene Family vs. Thomas Betts, p.133_1821_002_0004, Thomas Keene’s children listed; digital images, Library of Virginia, Virginia Memory (www.lva.virginia.gov/chancery : downloaded, 30 Aug 2019).
Another case that I found identified the illegitimate son of my 3rd Great Grandfather’s brother, Samuel Carter and his deceased mother:
“…Jane Crenshaw that Samuel Carter late of Westmoreland County duly made and published his last will and Testament … [he] gave all his estate to his natural Son Samuel Carter Crenshaw whose mother was Sister of the Whole blood to your oratrix and Whose name was Peggy Crenshaw who died Some time ago without any other child than the Said Samuel Carter Crenshaw…”
Source: Westmoreland Co., Virginia, Chancery Court Records 193_1819_003_0002, Jane Crenshaw vs admr of Samuel Carter Crenshaw, 26 May 1819, Samuel Carter Crenshaw, son of Samuel Carter, 26 May 1819; digital images, Library of Virginia, Virginia Memory (www.lva.virginia.gov/chancery : downloaded, 24 February 2019).
As you can see these records can contain a wealth of information. In the case of Samuel Carter no marriage records exist and the identity of his son’s mother has never been found in any other document. Samuel’s will also has not been discovered. The listing of the Keene children with their spouses helped to understand the whole family and how the related to one another. Another part of this same case file listed the deaths of two of the husbands of the Keene children and a subsequent second marriage for one of them with the name of the spouse.
How can you find records like this?
Virginia’s chancery case files are online at: https://www.lva.virginia.gov/chancery/. To see if the county you’re interested in has been scanned see: http://www.lva.virginia.gov/chancery/available.asp To search the files you select the county and then type your queries into the fields shown. I usually skip the “Plaintiff(s)” and “Defendant(s)” fields and simply type the surname I am interested in in the field “Surname 1.” I usually also look for records first in the county that I know they were living in and if I don’t find anything I will select neighboring counties. You can select multiple counties in the drop down by holding the control key down and clicking on each county. Note that wildcards do not work in these search fields so try various spellings (think phonetically) before you give up. I had a family with the surname “Deatley” and found key records for the family under “Dealty.”
I usually simply select the county and then type the surname I’m interested in in the Surname’s field, unless I know that one of these surnames was the Plaintiff or Defendant. I rarely type the First Name, but if the First Name was unique and not easily misspelled I might search with it.
Your search results are presented in a list with the “view details” link to the right.
The document view lists the surnames in the document in the order they appear (hint: If the document has a lot of pages and the surname is near the end of the list you might search near the end of the pages first). You can view and read the document in the viewer, or download a .zip file that contains all of the pages as .pdf files.
A note about handwriting - these records are handwritten and they are not in a beautiful cursive like many of the county clerks wrote, they are everyday person handwriting See the example image below. Don’t let the handwriting scare you off, it’s great practice at improving your transcription ability! And, it’s fun to see how normal people wrote too.
This is a fairly typical example of some of the handwriting you might encounter. Some of the records are a little easier to read, some more difficult.
Good luck in your search of these incredible records.