Go Research - Go Public Court Record

Introduction

When it comes to a public court record this guide will be 'very general' in nature, due to the vast differences between countries. Although based on the English system, all western countries still have fundamental differences peculiar to each other. So please regard the following in that light.

First question,why even bother with a public court record?

The answer is, that when you are desparately seeking family history information you investigate all possibilities.- Be it a public court record or a scrap of paper in a family bible.

Welcome to the realm of the courts where if it's not complicated it can't be legal!

I don't want to put you off but that's the nature of the judicial beast. My advice is to leave the public court record till you have exhausted all other avenues.

Now that I've got rid of the negatives, let's move on.

True or False?

"My poor relatives wouldn't be mentioned in any public court record."

Sorry, that's false. Even the humblest peasant could be mentioned - although if he never owned property, always paid his taxes, obeyed the law, didn't have any children and never committed adultery, it's unlikely!

As you can see unless your ancestor was a monk he may well be mentioned.

Public Court Record Shuffle

When you've come to that sorry state where you have no alternative but to grit your teeth and do some public court record shuffle, you may be pleasantly surprised with the amount of information to be found. Of course, the amount will vary greatly from country to country, state to state and county to county.

There's a wealth of names, dates, addresses and distinguishing birthmarks out there just waiting to be snapped up. Your task, if you choose to accept it, is to find them. No simple job but as always there is an easy way - well, actually there's not. What it boils down to is degree of difficulty.

While any court case may provide genealogical information, there's a few that are more likely, such as the following.

Divorces

Unfortunately, divorces are all too common today but prior to 1900, although not unheard of, they were the exception rather than the rule. The content will vary but here is a breakdown:

• Date and place of marriage
• Minor aged children may be named, with their ages.
• Previous residences are likely to be mentioned.
• Where the divorce action was never completed, complainant's complaint may still provide information.

Partitions

This is an action claimed by heirs to an estate where there is disagreement as to how the property is divided.Further analysis is advisable where there are property disputes as often they will contain information about earlier family members.

Adoptions

Nowadays, there is red tape for everything. But way back, when political correctness referred to the quality of a parlimentarians suit, many actions that we all assume would be signed in triplicate and filed away in a vault somewhere, were sometimes treated informally.
Adoptions are a case in point. Where a child is left an orphan or the parents are unable to care for them the extended family often stepped in and the child was 'blended' into the new family. Therefore not all adoptions will be recorded.

Guardianships

Where a father dies and is survived by his wife and minor children a guardianship may have been filed. Legally, a woman had few rights and that even extended to the ownership of property, so the extended family would take over these responsibilities.These records should provide names of children and include dates of birth.

Bastardry

Not openly spoken of back then and looked upon with a less forgiving eye than now, these records may provide names of children's fathers that appear nowhere else. Especially useful in the era before civil registration of vital records.

Others

There are many other types of cases that might be brought before a court, all of which have the potential to be genealogically relevant.

• Civil Actions (private individuals versus private individuals).
• Criminal Actions (basically a violation of state statute or something that threatens society at large).
• Equity Actions (cases where there may be a more "equitable" solution outside the letter of the law).

Getting to the Records

Generally, there are three ways to access court records:

1. The actual location.
If you are fortunate enough to be in the vicinity of old court buildings or archive repositories, this would be a good place to start.

2. Internet and Microfilm.
The Genealogical Society of Utah has filmed public court records for many areas. Fully funded by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, the Family History Library Catalogue court record indexes can be accessed at www.familsearch.org
This, in turn, will give you the microfilm number which you can then order through a Family History Library.Keep in mind that not all court records may have been filmed for a specific country.

3. Published records.
Some court records have been transcribed and published. View the indexes at Family Search.
Note that post-1850 court records are largely unpublished, and also be aware that some published records are abstracts or extractions, not complete verbatim transcriptions.

Why You Might Want to Search Court Records

• Sheer desperation!
• The further back in time you go the more reliant you will become on court records because they are some of the earliest available.
• To validate an address or perhaps to confirm a family relationship.

• Estate disputes and fights can sometimes provide information on relatives not contained in the probate file. Possibly taking years to settle, a case of this type might mention grandchildren or great-grandchildren of the deceased.

Visit The Old Bailey

This a great site where you can view the details of 100,000 trials from the 1700's at the Old Bailey Courthouse in London, just for the fun of it. Yes, public court records can be fun!

And you never know, you may get lucky.

Click here at www.oldbaileyonline.com - and it's FREE!

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