Hello friends and welcome back to my blog! As always, I hope that I am finding you well in your research. Today, I hope to help you in our ever-continuing quest as genealogists, to find more sources that can provide us with information to identify and or further our knowledge about our ancestors. Now we have covered quite an array of different sources throughout the span of this blog, but that which we have yet to hit on is court records. Court records can be extremely beneficial in helping us identify ancestors we may not have discovered yet, as well as provide us detail about the lives of specific ancestors and situations they may have dealt with.
Just like other sources we have covered: census, military, gravesites etc. court cases and records can be a clever way of uncovering an ancestor’s name you have yet to come across. However, unlike the above sources it takes a little bit more than searching for one ancestor to stumble across another. You will have to be very clear when searching databases to type in the title of the region your ancestor lived in and the family name. To search for area specific cases that your ancestors’ involvement may be recorded in, it will be helpful to note that legal institutions within the U.S. sort their cases into regional collections: Atlantic reporter, Northeastern reporter, Southeastern reporter, etc. Remember that this regional collection distinction should precede the surname of your ancestor when searching through these databases. If you find that you are having little luck uncovering much information about your ancestors via the digital databases, it might be time to take your search in person to county courthouses.
If you have had the pleasure of sorting through many physical documents and old records you may be internally groaning at the very thought of having to step foot into a county courthouse and sort through more information without the help of the wonderful technology we have at our disposal now-a-days. I certainly wish that all information was digitalized, but at the point we are now, not all records are digital. So sometimes this means that for us genealogists we have to roll up our sleeves and start sorting through those file folders. A huge tip if you find yourself in such a situation would be to first identify which county, your ancestors lived in and research the historical contexts of the courthouse. Pay especially close attention to what county’s ancestors lived in historically. County lines might change over time, but records may be still kept for one area that’s part of new county in modern times within its previous county’s courthouse. Another important thing to do before you set out on wild courthouse adventures is to familiarize yourself with what types of records you might find. Some important ones include: county court records, tax records, estate records, and, vital records.
Now I understand if this can all sound a bit overwhelming, please don’t think of this blog as the one stop shop for everything courthouse/legal record related when it comes to genealogy! If you are finding yourself in need of more in-depth explanations for any of the parts of this topic covered today, please feel free to navigate to my webinar tab where I provide more detailed longer form explanations. If you are finding that your question is more personal in nature do not hesitate to reach out more directly using the above contact information. I am always happy to help! Good look in your future searches for legal records and happy researching!
Winona I Laird “The Genealogy Granny”
