County court records

Order books, minute books and loose papers

Courts kept two kinds of records. Bound volumes, such as order books and minute books, record what the court did when it was in session. The Library of Virginia explains that minute books usually hold brief entries, while order books give neater summaries of cases, and that these volumes are the final, official version of the court's proceedings. They may include information found nowhere else, because the papers behind them have often been lost.

Loose papers are the raw material: petitions, bonds, summonses, depositions and exhibits filed in each case. They can be far more detailed than the book entry. The Library of Congress advises asking for both the docket books and the paper files, since one may be more complete or easier to read than the other.

Start with the order book index, if there is one, and read every entry for your surname. A one-line order, such as a name on a jury list or a bond for an office, places a man in the county on a given day.

Deeds versus court records

A deed is not a lawsuit, but it often passed through the court. In Virginia, the Library of Virginia notes, deeds were proved and recorded when presented to the court; if a deed had no witnesses, the seller acknowledged it in open court. So an order book may note that a deed between two people was proved, even when the deed book itself is lost.

In other states deeds went to a separate office. In Pennsylvania, for example, the Library of Congress lists deeds under the recorder of deeds, apart from the courts. Either way, read deeds alongside court records. A deed of gift for love and affection sometimes states the kinship between the parties, and a wife may have had to release her dower right before land could be sold, which names her.

Guardianship

Guardianship records are among the most useful for proving parent and child. The Library of Congress points out that guardians were often appointed to protect a minor's property even when one parent was still living, so a child called an orphan may only have lost a father. Guardians could also be appointed for adults the court found unable to manage their affairs.

In Virginia, the Library of Virginia explains, a child aged fourteen could go into court and choose a guardian, so an order naming a guardian chosen by a minor tells you the child was at least about fourteen. Guardians posted bonds with sureties, and they brought periodic accounts into court showing what they spent on each child. These accounts, which show what the guardian spent on each child's support, can run for years, until the last child married or came of age.

Orphans' courts and probate courts

Some states gave estates and guardianships to a separate court. In Pennsylvania this is the orphans' court, and the Library of Congress warns not to be misled by the name: it handles the estates of minors and incapacitated people, and the distribution of a dead person's estate among all heirs, whatever their age.

Partition and sale records from such courts can be extraordinary for genealogy, because they list every person entitled to a share. If an ancestor died without a will, the distribution may name all living descendants. Even when there was a will, a later distribution may show that a daughter had married, or that a child had died and left children of their own.

Lawsuits and other cases

Civil suits over debts, called judgments in Virginia, and equity cases, called chancery, fill large parts of many courthouses. Chancery suits often deal with dividing land or estates and can include affidavits and petitions. The Library of Congress adds that a married woman usually needed a husband, guardian or next friend to bring a case, so look for the man acting for her.

Before 1865, enslaved people were treated in law as property, so court records in slaveholding areas can name them in debts, estate divisions and sales, and some record suits brought by enslaved people seeking their freedom. These entries can be among the few written traces of their lives.