Carl
Quite a project.
I scanned some probate records for the Center for History and New Media 
some time ago.... and they may be able to provide you with some 
assistance, even perhaps a database to put your Chancery Records in.
See 
http://chnm.gmu.edu/probing-the-past-virginia-and-maryland-probate-inventories/
or email them at [log in to unmask]
Roger Mellen
Now Assistant Professor, New Mexico State University

On 1/19/11 12:19 PM, Childs, Carl (LVA) wrote:
> The Library of Virginia's Local Records Services Branch was recently
> awarded a $150,000 grant from the National Historical Publications and
> Records Commission (NHPRC) to support the scanning of the Augusta County
> Chancery Causes dating from 1745 to 1912.  NHPRC, the grant funding arm
> of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), recognized
> the national significance of the Augusta County collection and validated
> the importance of and great benefits provided by LVA's ongoing digital
> chancery initiative.
>
> Chancery causes are invaluable to family historians and those interested
> in studying the history of a locality or region and its inhabitants.
> Chancery causes are legal proceedings that could not be decided readily
> by existing written laws. Decisions were made by a county justice or
> judge, not a jury, and on the basis of fairness, or equity, in place of
> the strictly formulated rules of common law.
>
> The Augusta County Chancery Causes are the most voluminous of any
> locality in Virginia and are one of the longest and most complete
> continuous collections of chancery records of any locality in the
> country. They document an unusually large geographic area. For the
> period 1745 to 1770, the boundaries of Augusta County encompassed most
> of western Virginia and what became the states of West Virginia,
> Kentucky, Illinois, and Ohio, and parts of present-day Pennsylvania as
> far north as Pittsburgh. In fact, the Augusta County court held sessions
> at Fort Pitt in Pittsburgh when claim to that area, known as the West
> Augusta District, was in dispute. Even after the county was reduced to
> roughly its present size in 1778, the Augusta County Court continued to
> be the repository for chancery causes from 28 localities, which were
> heard by the Staunton Superior Court of Chancery from 1801 to 1831.
>
> When completed, the Augusta index and images will join the over 5
> million chancery images from 48 localities already posted online. The
> scanning portion of the Augusta project is slated to begin in February
> 2011. For more information on the Library of Virginia's digital chancery
> records initiative, please visit the Chancery Records Index at
> http://www.virginiamemory.com/collections/chancery/
>
> For more information, contact Carl Childs, Director, Local Records
> Services, Library of Virginia, at 804-6923739 or
> [log in to unmask]
>
>
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