Library of Virginia Chancery Records Scanned, More Coming

I found something hot yesterday that I did not know existed. I was almost ashamed when I found it, for the fact that I did not realize it was there all of this time. I consider myself an expert on the holdings of the Library of Virginia, I even volunteered there for almost a year. I just could not believe that I missed their project for scanning chancery court records. These are free, online records for anyone to use. Be warned that the records can be very long, some more than 1,000 pages, and they can get very addictive!

Here is the deal, the Library has scanned several counties and are working on the rest. If you do not know, a chancery cause is basically a court case where there is no clear cut law to decide who is right or wrong in a civil case. All of the evidence is gathered and presented to a judge who rules on that evidence. This can include old wills, deeds, Bible records, letters, anything to help win your case. I will give an example of a chancery cause that I found in my family...

Ann's husband died and she sold twenty acres of their farm to one of their freed slaves. Twenty years later, after Ann's death, one of her children decided that they wanted the twenty acres back but the freed slave had sold the land to a white family ten years ago. They all go to chancery court and the judge rules that Ann had no right to sell the property because 2/3 of it belonged to the heirs of her husband. Furthermore the freed slaves had no right to purchase property so the sale was doubly invalid. The white family had to give the land back to Ann's estate and had no recourse since the original sale was not valid. That is a true chancery cause as no clear-cut law applied to the situation. It took a judge's understanding of the laws to come to a conclusion.

Anyway, the Library of Virginia has already scanned the causes for the following areas:

• Alexandria City
• Caroline County
• Fauquier County
• Hanover County
• King & Queen County
• Lancaster County
• Middlesex County
• New Kent County
• Northampton County
• Prince William County
• Rockbridge County (some)
• Shenandoah County
• Staunton City

These areas are in the process of being scanned at this time:

• Amelia County
• Cumberland County
• Page County
• Rockbridge County (some)

You can check out the records at this link: Library of Virginia Chancery Causes

Lottie A. Walker, April 02, 1894 - June 17, 1976, of Cumberland, Virginia

Lottie A. Walker, April 02, 1894 - June 17, 1976, of Cumberland, Virginia.

Richmond Times-Dispatch, June 19, 1976:"WALKER - Miss Lottie A. Walker, 83, of Cumberland, Va., died in a Farmville hospital Thursday. She was born in Bracey, Va., April 2, 1893; a daughter of the late Melville P. Walker and Beulah Lett Walker. Surviving are a sister, Mrs. Estelle W. Atkinson, Cumberland, Va.; and a number of nieces and nephews. Graveside funeral service, 3:30 P.M. Saturday at Maury Cemetery in Richmond. Remains rest at Doyne-Burger Funeral Home in Farmville."

Lottie is buried in section 66, division 63, grave 5 of Maury Cemetery in Richmond.

Narcissus Estelle Walker Atkinson, October 07, 1903 - January 24, 1999, of Cedar Croft, Virginia

Narcissus Estelle Walker Atkinson, October 07, 1903 - January 24, 1999, of Cedar Croft, Virginia.

Richmond Times-Dispatch, January 27, 1999:"ATKINSON - Mrs. Estelle Walker Atkinson, age 95, of Cedar Croft, Cumberland County, died January 24, 1999, in Farmville. Survived by one daughter, June A. Plummer of Calif.; one son, Clinton Jones Atkinson Jr. of New York City; four grandchildren and four great-grandsons. Family will receive friends after 9:30 a.m. Thursday at Doyne-Burger-Davis Funeral Home, Farmville, where services will be conducted at 10:30 a.m. Interment 1:30 p.m. Richmond National Cemetery. Remembrances to Buckingham Public Library, Dillwyn Branch, P.O. Box 530, Dillwyn, Va. Doyne-Burger-Davis Funeral Home in charge."

Richmond Times-Dispatch, January 28, 1999:"FUNERAL TODAY FOR RETIRED TEACHER - N. Estelle Walker Atkinson's interest in the world around her was boundless. A retired schoolteacher and bibliophile, she was a former newspaper columnist and a fierce believer in the Baptist faith. The Buckingham County resident died Sunday at the age of 95. A funeral for Mrs. Atkinson will be held Thursday at 10:30 a.m. at Doyne-Burger-Davis Funeral Home in Farmville. Burial will be Thursday at 1:30 p.m. at Richmond National Cemetery, 1701 Williamsburg Road, in Richmond. Born in Bracey, Mrs. Atkinson grew up in Richmond. She graduated from what was then Averett Junior College in Danville before marrying in 1926. She spent the first of her married life in the Panama Canal Zone, where her husband, the late Clinton Jones Atkinson Sr., worked for the federal government's Panama Railroad Co. Mrs. Atkinson took a job with the federal government as an accountant for the U.S. Office of the Foreign Liquidation Commission. In Panama, she spent Sunday afternoons traveling to remote villages as a missionary. "My mother was born again before there were born-agains," said her son, Clinton Atkinson Jr. "She would stop every peasant she could find walking down the road...and ask them if they knew about Jesus." When the couple returned to the States, they bought an old stone home, Cedar Croft, near Dillwyn in Buckingham County, and spent much of heir time restoring the structure. She returned to school in her late 40s and earned a bachelor's degree from Longwood College. She later earned two master's degrees from the school. She taught in Cumberland public schools briefly and later taught science at Prince Edward Academy, now the Fuqua School. While in Panama, she developed a penchant for collecting orchids and butterflies, and after returning to Virginia, she began collecting and preserving other creatures and insects as well, her son said. "Her grandchildren loved to take their friends down into the basement and show them all the wild and curious things she kept down there." Her folksy social column, "Gold Hill Nuggets," appeared in the Farmville Herald in the early 1980s. She also worked to establish the Buckingham County Library. In addition to her son, she is survived by a daughter, June Atkinson Plummer of Walnut Creek, California. Memorial contributions may be made to the Dillwyn Branch of the Buckingham County Library, P.O. Box 530, Dillwyn, VA 23936."

Estelle is buried in plot 3B 0 6089 of Richmond National Cemetery.