Court Records

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Court Records
http//ancestry.com/library/view/ancmag/4106.asp

• Naturalization Probate
• Adoption
• Bankruptcy
• Civil proceedings
• Criminal proceedings
• Divorce
• Guardianships
• Mortgage
• Property disputes

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Adoption

• Most cases the records are sealed.
• Only the adoptee can open the records when they
  reach the legal age. Rare cases when others have
  opened the records
• Rare cases could be a need to learn genetic
  medical conditions
• Have to secure a court order to open the case
• Before 20th century adoptions were handled
  quietly, and within the families, outside of
  legal system. Some parish priests could have made
  notes in their records.

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Bankruptcy

• Economic hardships have marked this in Americas
  history
• They are common in some time periods
• Look at the rate of bankruptcies today in Utah
• Bankruptcies are filed in federal courts,
  intended to protect the individual from the
  creditors

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Civil Proceedings

• Property disputes
• Small claims
• Slander
• False accusations
• These records are a peek into the daily lives of
  our ancestors. They show the mood of the
  community and the people

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Criminal Proceedings

• These are referred to as case files
• Can yield interesting information
• Might learn things we really did not want to know
• Robert
• Jens
• Hatfield's and the Mc Cloy's (family feuds)

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Divorce

• Less common in the 1900s
• Filed at the local level of court system
• Sometimes the divorce was initiated, but never
  completed

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Guardianships

• May seem unusual, but they are more common than
  you might think
• A widow could not take care of her children
• Children made award of the state and placed in an
  orphanage or court appointed guardian
• Sometimes the man would arrange guardianship
  before his death in a will
• Documentation of guardianship is sometimes placed
  in what is called a Orphans Court

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Mortgage

• These are filed in local courts
• How many times have you financed a home. Look at
  the paper trail you are leaving for your
  descendants
• There is a web site for unclaimed property

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Property Disputes

• Communities have been without a police force, so
  the courts assumed the role of keeping the peace
• Handled in local courts

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Court Locations

• 3 levels of courts
• Local court or county court (valualble
  information at this level.
• Determine where they are located, town, county,
  remember boundaries have changed over time
• State or supreme court
• Unlikely to find much at this level regarding
  genealogical data
• Federal
• Can be an excellent resource. Bankruptcy
  information
• There are 89 federal district courts, plus the
  U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and the Supreme
  Court

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Using Court Records

• Most court records are indexed
• Many cases there are 2 separate indexes
• Plaintiffs
• Defendants
• Learn how the information is organized and
  accessed
• Hundreds of rolls have been microfilmed and are
  at the Family History Library
• Some counties are making the records available
  online through local or county Web sites

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Pitfalls Limitations

• Indexes are not complete records
• Indexes are secondary sources
• Not all court records have been fully indexed
• Original source might be hard to locate. Use
  Ancestrys Red Book to locate the towns and
  counties
• Some court offices have limited help. Sometimes
  fellow researches are more help in locating the
  records

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Can be very time-consuming

• Have a specific objective in mind
• Schedule enough research time
• Learn what records are available and how to use
  them
• Learn as much as possible about the people you
  are researching before you turn to court records

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Web Sites

• www.archives.state.ut.us/
• www.cyndislist.com/lib-state.htm
• www.arkansasresearch.com/g-court.html
• www.genealogy.com/47_neill.html
• www.ncsconline.org/D_KIS/info_court_web_sites.html