Janet - I have seen several chancery cases that were obviously just the
parties jumping through the legal hoops to divide up property. In at least
2 of them, the eldest son and his sisters and mother had already come up
with an amicable property distribution and were merely submitting it to the
court to formalize it. I think running it through chancery court was the
only way to make it legal.

After 1786 (when primogeniture was abolished), the estate of an intestate
went 1/3 to the widow and 2/3 divided equally among any children; if there
were no children, the widow got everything.

I always check for chancery cases - they are often gold mines of
information about family ties and who moved away to far-flung states. Ditto
for land records - sometimes a parent transfers land and property to his
children while alive and there is no estate to probate, so no estate
records, but the equivalent of a will can be found in the land deed.

--Holly

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   Holly Cochran     email: [log in to unmask]
   Hollyhock Press (publisher of Bath co VA area books)
   http://www.hollyhockpress.com/

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