Chancery Causes – The UncommonWealth

Archives

A Bill of Divorcement

After 31 years of marriage, Alois Rick filed for divorce from Anna Regina Rick, his wife, in the Richmond Chancery Court. The two were married…

Jennifer TaylorOctober 22, 2025

Archives Conservation Digital Projects The Stacks

Looking Back, Moving Forward: The Chancery Records Index Turns 25!

Those words in the November/December 2000 issue of the Library of Virginia newsletter launched what would eventually evolve into one of the agency’s most-used digital…

Vince BrooksOctober 15, 2025

Archives Newspapers

“A Rumbling Disagreeable Noise:” Complaints about Bowling in Alleghany County

Imagine your local bowling alley. The sound of a heavy ball hitting the floor just before the bounce of the pins hitting the floor. The…

Jennifer TaylorSeptember 10, 2025

Archives

Location is Everything

Location, location, location. Most people associate the word “location” with real estate based on the common belief that it has a direct influence on a…

Sherri BagleySeptember 3, 2025

Archives

The Legality Around a Remarkably Painful Societal Issue

On November 21, 1910, Roxie Annie Bauers (née Bumgarner) lost her life in a tragic murder-suicide at the Lewis Hotel in Detroit (now known as…

Callie FreedJuly 30, 2025

Archives Education & Programming Newspapers

“One of the Most Unique Papers”: Documenting Chinese American Citizenship in Virginia

On a Monday morning in May of 1903, six men waited in the Richmond federal courthouse to learn whether they would remain in Virginia or…

Jessi BennettMay 28, 2025

Archives

“She is supposed to be his daughter”: Making Historical Connections in Albemarle County

The Library of Virginia’s collections include a document titled “Surnames, by Counties and Cities, of Mixed Negroid Virginia Families Striving to Pass as ‘Indian’ or…

Caroline CollinsApril 25, 2025

Archives

All Preparations for a Colony: The Saxon Colonization Project

So, a Bavarian immigrant, a Prussian nobleman, and a Revolutionary-War-hero-turned-debtor walk into a bar…. At least that’s probably the way this would start if it…

Vince BrooksMarch 10, 2025

Archives

A Richmond City Chancery Cause and 19th Century English Opera, Part 2

Editor's Note: This blog post is part two of two. You can read the first part here. Due to financial complications arising from their usurpation…

Caroline CollinsJanuary 15, 2025

Archives

A Richmond City Chancery Cause and 19th Century English Opera

While processing Richmond City chancery causes that ended between 1879 and 1881, I stumbled across a suit involving several former members of an English opera…

Caroline CollinsJanuary 8, 2025

Archives Digital Projects

Mother Knows Best: A Tale of 2 Brothers

Like Jonathan Ramey of Scott County, Virginia, whose story we previously explored on UncommonWealth, brothers James and William Temple of Bath County joined the trek…

Callie FreedOctober 4, 2024

Archives

The Wrong Deed

A common refrain in real estate is location, location, location. Sometimes however, the name is just as important, especially if the divine is involved. Such…

Sherri BagleyJuly 10, 2024

Archives Digital Projects

Clarke County Chancery Causes Now Online

The Clarke County chancery causes, 1838-1912, have now been indexed, conserved, and digitized. They are freely accessible to researchers via the Chancery Records Index (CRI).Clarke…

Vince BrooksJune 24, 2024

Archives

“Operating for Gold”: Gold Mining in Nineteenth-Century Virginia

The California Gold Rush of 1849 is a universal topic of study in courses surveying U.S. history, but what is commonly known about gold mining…

Caroline CollinsJune 14, 2023

Archives

Finding Princess Anne County’s Hidden Treasures

The Princess Anne County chancery causes cover an extensive period (1752-1913) and a wide range of topics. To discover and learn more about these treasures,…

Callie FreedMarch 15, 2023