Great advice, Janet. All should take heed; records are not always
found where we expect those to be, so look carefully in the
surrounding counties when expected records are absent, as well - of
course - as in every county that is within the "genesis" of the
county of your research.
----- Original Message -----
From: [log in to unmask]
....Subject: Re: [VA-ROOTS] Fw: Early Virginia (migration of court
records)
Hello Paul and Everyone,
Regarding migration/non-migration of court records, while as a rule
the court records are found in the courthouse for the county at the
time the event took place, even if superseded by later county
formations they don't move to a new courthouse.
However, I had an experience where the probate records/heirs'
quitclaim deeds of my 4g grandfather James Williams who died in 1842
were found in Moniteau Co. Missouri, which was formed from Cole Co
1844-5. They are not in Cole Co. courthouse even though all the
documents say Cole Co. The Cole Court Order books note the
administration/inventory/sale etc. for the estate, but all the loose
estate records, the actual inventory, etc. are in Moniteau
courthouse. These include the actual Administrator's bond with the
listing of the heirs, and the later quitclaim deeds from nine of the
children to a tenth for a piece of their father's property.
I have told Paul about this in the past and he thought this was
unusual/irregular. Be that as it may, that's what happened. I
speculate that the lawyer/family held on to the quitclaims until the
youngest child reached 21 (his does read Moniteau Co.) and they
filed the whole ball of wax, settled the estate finally at that
time, and finally turned the actual estate and financial tidbits in.
This late filing of estate records is not unusual of course.
I just note this for some of you who might be looking in the
generally accepted "correct" place, which in my example would be
Cole Co. Missouri, and come up empty handed. The above was quite
a find for me, because James Williams moved from the very burned
Cocke Co. TN about 1836/7.
Best Regards,
Janet (Baugh) Hunter
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