I found the following index page at Family Search:
I would like to know what "ads" stands for in the unlabeled column and what it implies. Does it stand for "administrator"and imply that that person to the right administered the estate of the person to the left?
These are chancery court cases.
Ads is an abbreviation for ad sectam, Latin for "at the suit of". The alternative is vs for versus.
The difference is that for papers associated with the defendant entering the plea, the names are written [defendant] ads [plaintiff]. For papers associated with the plaintiff filing charges, the names are written [plaintiff] vs [defendant].
For example, the first file on the snippet given, Shannon ads. Newman, Joseph Shannon is the defendant at the suit of plaintiff Alex Newman.
