Ancestry Magazine

It is a thrill to hold an original early seventeenth- or eighteenth-century document. Perhaps it is a will bequeathing a few teaspoons, a handful of utensils, and meager household goods. The sense of connection to an ancestor you feel when you are holding that will—the piece of paper on which he or she touched and scribbled a name or mark—can instill enthusiasm that will bring you back to the courthouse in search of more.

Even if the document is a clerk’s transcribed copy rather than the original, you can reflect on your ancestor’s thoughts as he or she decided who was to receive each precious possession. In other court documents, you can imagine your ancestor’s joy when reporting the birth of his first child or sadness when his five-year-old dies during an influenza epidemic. When torrential rains drowned the crop and the mortgage was foreclosed, you can sense the family’s despair.

We seek to use courthouse records to help weave the story of our ancestors’ lives, to understand them and the times in which they lived.

Offerings at the Courthouse
The documents you will find at the courthouse often provide proof of relationships, or at least clues to those relationships. But for the best research results, you will need to broaden your search to all the records in the area involving the surname during the time period in which your ancestors lived. If you focus only on one individual, you may miss opportunities to identify relatives. Even when your ancestors are not located in the indexes, a broadened search may turn up a child, a witness, a bondsman, a buyer at an estate sale, and more in documents concerning another person of the surname. Those references may provide clues. And sometimes a relationship may be specified, even when the ancestor’s name is not actually indexed.

For example, an orphan’s name is not usually indexed. If you try to find five-year-old Mary Jurgens, you probably won’t find her in the indexes. But in collecting all the documents of those individuals bearing the same surname, you may note a male Jurgens who left an estate. With no prior hint that he is related to Mary, you can nonetheless start abstracting that estate file. And there, buried in the probate packet, may be one reference listing little Mary as an orphaned daughter. This type of unexpected find happens frequently and emphasizes the need to do a broad se arch of all courthouse records of a particular surname.

Once accumulated, courthouse records can be combined with other sources and can result in solid evidence of relationship, as well as a glimpse into the lives our ancestors led.

Sometimes you will be rewarded beyond your expectations. For instance, a family legend that an ancestor was feisty may be substantiated in courthouse documents. The sheriff’s cryptic remarks on the back of the execution of judgment for debt may report that when he arrived at the cabin to levy on the household goods, he was met at the front porch by your great-great-grandfather. Shotgun in hand, this man was determined not to yield his few possessions. Or perhaps accounts of the family’s poverty are vividly verified when you discover that great-grandmother was hauled before the county court for milking her neighbor’s cow. Or, confirmation of the family’s substantial contribution to its frontier town may surface when bond books in the courthouse record their oaths of office. The documents are “stories” of your ancestors and piece by piece they build a credible account.

Preparing for Your Visit
You may be asking yourself why it’s so important to go to the courthouse. Aren’t all the records of the courthouse available either on the Internet, on microfilm, or in published sources? You’ll find that many records languish on the shelves, attics, or basements of the courthouse, unused and neglected.

If you’ve never conducted research at the courthouse or if the only time you went you were so intimidated you never returned, a few pointers here will help you overcome your reticence and help you enjoy a productive trip.

First, prepare for your visit to the courthouse by learning to read old handwriting. This is essential. You’ll no doubt have only a few hours at the courthouse, or a day or two at the most, and you’ll want to make the most of yo ur time there. Practice with old documents, study guidebooks with examples, and visit websites that offer assistance in reading old-fashioned script.

You’ll also want to be prepared to abstract. Photocopying everything you find will not only be costly, but will be time-consuming as well. (This is especially true if the clerk does not permit photocopying by anyone other than courthouse personnel.) Using the correct technique of abstracting will prevent the loss of critical family clues. If you do find a document that is important to the identification of your family, be sure to photocopy it, but also abstract it immediately so you can follow those leads while you are onsite.

Next, learn about indexes. Use guidebooks to become familiar with the varied types of indexes. It is easy to miss names in an index if you don’t know how to properly use it. When you are onsite, open the index book and study the first few pages for an explanation of the index and how to use it. If the index defies your understanding, be sure to ask the clerk.

Onsite at the Courthouse
Unfortunately, the clerk may not react enthusiastically to your visit. Clerks are busy with their responsibilities and are often unsympathetic to the genealogist who wants to search the old records. In fact, the clerk may not know just what the courthouse has in early records, nor how to use them. Come to the courthouse prepared. Know what records you want to examine. Land? Probate? Additionally, have an idea of the time period you need to search. Then simply ask the clerk where the indexes to those particular records are kept.

Keep a few rules of etiquette in mind while you’re at the courthouse:

• Don’t lay paper on the courthouse record book while writing since it can leave marks.

• Put the books back where you found them.

• Check the posted signs to see if pens are permitted.

• Don’t take up excessive counte r space.

• Thank the clerks when you leave.

When examining the index, copy all the entries for the surname in that particular time period. This is important since the index is your key to the documents. Even the index used by itself can reveal relationships.

For instance, if John Schneider gift-deeded land to William Schnieder, even without examining the document, you can be relatively sure there is a relationship between the two men. If five people of the same surname lived along Indian Creek, it is likely those people are related. Or if you don’t know the name of an ancestor’s wife, the deed index could disclose that George Hopper and his wife Lucinda bought land, so at least you will be furnished with her first name.

You will still want to look at as many of the actual documents as you can for the additional details they furnish but don’t overlook the value of indexed entries.

Once you have copied the listings, decide which ones look the most promising. First, look at those identified as belonging to your family. Then, look at those where the column describing the type of document looks promising for identification of relationships. For example, in the deed office you’ll want to examine those records identified as partitions (dividing inherited property or selling it and dividing the proceeds), powers of attorney (often given to a relative to settle an out-of-state matter involving the family), quitclaim deed (conveying a known or possible interest, often to a relative), a gift deed (often among family members), and as many others as you can in the time you have. Also, property transactions that are connected with an estate—perhaps being sold by an executor or administrator—are important to examine.

You could effectively use a small handheld computer for your research at the courthouse, but bringing a laptop into the courthouse is not recommended. The counters are often high and slanted, and sometimes the y don’t have lips to prevent things from slipping onto the floor. Also, counterspace is often limited and the use of electrical outlets is usually restricted. Be sure to bring hard-copy summaries of your research problem for easy reference.

Dress comfortably. Dark colors will keep you looking presentable after handling dust-covered books all day. Flat shoes will keep you safe while climbing up and down ladders or when using narrow staircases. If you can’t lift the heavy document books, bring someone with you who can.

Before you leave the courthouse, keep in mind that one record often leads to other records. You’ll see that a marriage bond is followed by a marriage certificate; and an estate inventory is preceded by either a will, or when there is no will, an administration proceeding. A partition deed dividing property is preceded by a court action in which one or more members of the family petitioned the court to either divide the property or sell the property and divide the proceeds.

In some areas, the courthouse has documents that are not typically associated with court records. In New York, for example, the courthouses often keep the original books of state census records. Some states store indexes to the censuses that have been prepared by local societies. In Indiana, old newspapers are often found on the courthouse shelves. Be sure to look around and see what’s at the courthouse you’re visiting.

After Your Visit
Once you return home from the courthouse, create a file on your computer, and enter all abstracts, index entries, and other notes from your courthouse research. It is best to do this while it’s fresh in your mind.

Examine and re-examine your notes. Did John Martin appear several times on the documents of your Jordan ancestors? Could he be related? Study all the surnames associated with your family, paying particular attention to any that are repetitious. Be alert for the neighbors; they can lead you to prior residences. If the neighbors’ names are unusual and can be easily identified in a prior state through censuses or other statewide records, you may find where your own family originated. Families and neighbors migrated together, especially when they were moving from state to state.

Do the same study with names of witnesses, bondsmen, neighbors, and all others associated in the records with your family. But don’t limit yourself to the names of persons. If your family owned property on Crooked Creek, see how many others of the same surname lived along that creek. If your family lived in a state with a rectangular survey in sections, townships, and ranges, check the property description for land records of others of the surname to see how close they lived. Neighbors bearing the same surname are most likely related.

Finally, it is important to familiarize yourself with the legalese in the documents since those strange clauses can provide considerable clues. If your ancestor left a will in which he gave one hundred acres “to my son and his heirs lawfully begotten of his body forever,” he was restricting the future of that parcel so that it would remain in the family. Research terminology you don’t understand in a guidebook or law dictionary.

When you visit the courthouse you will find it to be an immensely rewarding experience. Finding documents that may solve the puzzle is exhilarating, and you’ll undoubtedly find treasures there that are not available elsewhere.

Christine Rose CG, CGL, FASG, is the author of several books including the recently released Courthouse Research for Family Historians: Your Guide to Genealogical Treasures (CR Publications, 2004). She specializes in courthouse research, as well as in military and land records.