By: Lyman Chalkley, Pub. 1912, reprinted 2023, 656 pages, Index, soft cover, ISBN #978-1-63914-097-8.

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.

Data to be found within this volume: 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. Each volume is indexed, and the combined total of names is over 50,000.