Mr. Kilby, You'll note in the information returned with your results set that the digitized Madison County records are only a portion of the entire series. Additional pre-1913 chancery causes are still housed in the office of the Circuit Court Clerk. The suits you seek may remain in the locality. I'm not familiar with Safari, but I did a search on "SMITH" in Orange Co. using Internet Explorer and Firefox and returned 81 results in both. I would suggest making sure you reset the form before performing subsequent searches. It may be that the search fields were not completely cleared so that you were actually performing an unintended search (example: "JACKSON" and "SMITH") yielding zero results. If you continue to experience problems, please contact [log in to unmask] to alert us. Sincerely, 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 [log in to unmask] Please consider the environment before printing this email. -----Original Message----- From: Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Craig Kilby Sent: Tuesday, July 07, 2009 2:21 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: [VA-HIST] Madison County chancery causes, 1801-1881 There is something not working correctly with the recent additions to the chancery suit data base on line. For example, in Madison County (which I was thrilled to learn about) I typed in the surname "Towles" in the surname box and only one hit came up, and it was not the one I was expecting, which I know is there, and it is the well known Clark's Administrators vs. Towles Executors. It did not show up. Another Madison County suit of Jackson vs Jackson yeiled two results, but not the suit I know is there. It brought up two more, however, I can't wait to read. For Orange County, I could not a find a suit I was looking for. I typed in "SMITH" into the search box and received ZERO hits. That's impossible. I will try using an LVA case number to see what I get, but something is not right with the database. Has anyone had a similar problem? I am using Safari for Mac if that is of any importance. Craig Kilby On Jul 7, 2009, at 11:19 AM, Brooks, Vincent (LVA) wrote: > The Library of Virginia (LVA) is pleased to announce the completion of > another digital scanning project. The processing, indexing, and > digital > reformatting of the Madison County chancery causes is now > complete. The > images have been added to the existing index on the newly redesigned > Chancery Records Index <http://beta.lva.virginia.gov/chancery/> (CRI) > which is now located on the Library's home for digital collections, > Virginia Memory <http://www.virginiamemory.com/> . The Madison County > chancery index covers the years 1801 through 1881. This locality joins > twenty-two counties and cities whose chancery causes have been > digitally > reformatted and made available through the Library's innovative > Circuit > Court Records Preservation Program, which seeks to preserve the > historic > records of Virginia's Circuit Courts. > > > > To date, The Library of Virginia has posted over 2.2 million digital > chancery images. Sixteen localities are presently being scanned and > will > be posted in the coming months. Please see the Chancery Records Index > for a listing of the available locality chancery collections. > > > > Chancery causes are cases that are decided on the basis of equity and > fairness as opposed to the strictly formulated rules of common law > cases. Chancery cases are especially useful when researching local > history, genealogical information, and land or estate divisions. They > are a valuable source of local, state, social, and legal history and > serve as a primary source for understanding a locality's history. > Chancery causes often contain correspondence; property lists, > including > slaves; lists of heirs; and vital statistics, along with many other > records. Some of the more common types of chancery causes involve > divisions of the estate of a person who died intestate (without a > will); > divorces; settlements of dissolved business partnerships; and > resolutions of land disputes. > > > > If you have any comments, questions, or corrections regarding the > CRI or > scanned images, please contact [log in to unmask] > > > > > > > ______________________________________ > To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe please see the > instructions at > http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html ______________________________________ To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe please see the instructions at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html ______________________________________ To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe please see the instructions at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html