The Library of Virginia (LVA) is very pleased to announce the completion
of another digital scanning project and to mark a milestone in its
ongoing effort to preserve the documentary heritage of Virginia's
circuit courts. The processing, indexing, and digital reformatting of
the Goochland County chancery causes is now complete. The Goochland
County chancery images span the years 1731 through 1912 (the index
covers through 1924) and bring the total number of available chancery
images to over 5 million. The images have been added to the Chancery
Records Index <http://www.virginiamemory.com/collections/chancery/>
(CRI) on Virginia Memory <http://www.virginiamemory.com/> .

 

Because these records rely so heavily on testimony from witnesses, they
offer a unique glimpse into the lives of Virginians from the early 18th
century to the eve of First World War. A broad spectrum of citizens-rich
and poor, black and white, slave and free-appear in the records.
Chancery cases are a valuable source of local, state, social, and legal
history and serve as a primary source for understanding local history.
They show the growth of business and industry in a locality, from
taverns and churches to mines and creameries. 

 

Among the 119,000 images scanned from the Goochland collection are ones
related to disputes over land, wills, divorces, debts, and business
issues. The names of slaves suing for their freedom, of the descendants
of the Huguenot settlers of Manakin-Towne, of planters, millers, coal
miners, church leaders, and ordinary citizens appear in the records.
Carefully-drawn plats sometimes illustrate cases involving disputed
property lines and mining rights. Ornate marriage certificates and
licenses accompany some divorce suits. Broadsides advertise the auction
of farms and businesses describing the land and its features or the
business and its equipment. This wealth of information is available from
any Internet connected computer.

 

Goochland County joins forty-six counties and cities whose chancery
causes have been digitally reformatted and made available through the
Library's innovative Circuit Court Records Preservation Program.  

 

If you have any comments, questions, or corrections regarding the CRI or
scanned images, please contact [log in to unmask]

 

 

Vincent T. Brooks

Senior Local Records Archivist

The Library of Virginia

800 E. Broad St.

Richmond, VA  23219

804/225-4452 (voice)

804/692-2277 (fax)

http://www.lva.virginia.gov <blocked::http://www.lva.virginia.gov/>  

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