Chronicles of the Scotch-Irish Settlement in Virginia. Extracted from the Original Records of Augusta County, 1745-1825. (3 Volume Set)

By: Lyman Chalkley, Pub. 1912, reprinted 2023, 3 volume set, 2000 pages, Index, soft cover, ISBN #0-89308-099-2.  This monumental 3 volume set of books consists of abstracts of court records pertaining to the Scotch-Irish pioneers who first breached the mountain barrier sealing off the Atlantic seaboard from the country west of the Blue Ridge.  However, it's referred to, its value as a reference work is unsurpassed, genealogists and historians alike regard it as the basic record of the first settlement of the country beyond the Blue Ridge Mountains.  In 1745, when Augusta County, Virginia was erected, its boundaries extended from the Alleghenies to the Mississippi River, and from the northern part of Tennessee to the Great Lakes.  This means that all of the states of Ohio, Illinois, Indiana and West Virginia were created from this one Virginia County along with the Virginia counties of: Bath, Botetourt, and Rockingham.  The first volume has abstracts of court order books (1745-1799), plus notes from county court judgments, original papers on suits (1745-1825), and petitions filed in court from 1745 on. Volume II has records of the circuit and district courts, marriage bonds, licenses and returns (1748-1800), land entries (1744-1751), guardians’ bonds (1782-1801), administrators’ bonds (1776-1810), tax delinquents (1748-1804), proceedings of the Vestry of Augusta Parish (1746-1799), and records of military service in colonial wars and the Revolution. Volume III has will abstracts (1745-1818) and deed abstracts (1745-1792). Each volume is indexed, and the combined total of names is over 50,000.