Richard, I can tell you the basics in Louisiana which may be of some use to you. I certainly do not know what the law was in Goochland in 1835. But these are very general principles. Louisiana is a civil law state. We have parishes instead of counties. Also property is classified as immovable (real) or movable (personalty). Judgments come in two flavors: a personal judgment can be enforced against the person of the defendant, i. e., all of his property whether immovable or movable. A judgment may also be against a specific piece of property by agreement of the parties, i. e., the parties agree that if a debt is not repaid timely, the creditor may seize and sell only property A, not B, C, etc. A parish court here, which is a state court, (State of Louisiana, Parish of East Baton Rouge) has personal jurisdiction over a person who is domiciled here (domicile is another chapter). This court also has jurisdiction over all property located within the parish. If Plaintiff obtains a personal judgment against Defendant in EBR parish, and Defendant owns property in West Feliciana Parish, Plaintiff must take that judgment to the Court in WF parish and ask that court to make it executory in that parish. If and when this is done, the sheriff of WF parish will seize and sell the property and turn the proceeds over to Plaintiff. I hope no one will take this as legal advice. I am retired (a recovering attorney). This is just hornbook law which you can read in any library. However, it can get very complicated down the way. I think jurisdiction and domicile are the most misunderstood areas of law. You just reminded me that I miss practicing law. Stella Woolfolk Williamson [email protected] -----Original Message----- From: Richard Clark <[email protected]> To: [email protected] <[email protected]> Date: Friday, July 23, 1999 1:29 PM Subject: [VAALBEMA-L] Early Law >Did the courts in one county have jusidiction in another? I have a court order in Goochland in an 1835 lawsuit forcing the sale of an estate's property, yet I cannot find that the deceased ever purchased, patented, or paid taxes in Goochland on such a piece of land. I was wondering if it could have been in another county. If so I would have expected the suit to be brought in said county ... does anyone know? >Dick Clark, fellow searcher > searcher > > >==== VAALBEMA Mailing List ==== >For the discussion of Genealogy and History, >primarily regarding the Albemarle County "area" > >============================== >Search more than 274 MILLION NAMES and find your ancestors at Ancestry.com! >Get started today at http://www.ancestry.com/rootswebtext.asp > >