About Using Courthouse Records:
Books:
Franklin. Keys to the Courthouse (4 vols) (find in a library)
- vol. 1 Jurisdictions
- vol. 2 The Records
- vol. 3 Unusual Records
- vol. 4 Analyzing the Records
Rose. Courthouse Research for Family Historians: Your Guide to Genealogical Treasures , 2004
(Find in a library)
See also her book: Courthouse Indexes Illustrated
Handybook for Genealogists (10th or 11th edition) and/or Ancestry's Redbook (you'll want the 3rd edition) includes information on what records can be found in the county courthouses, as well as providing contact information for the courthouse. But a newer book is on the market and I think I like it best for the clarity of presentation of courthouse information. It is The Family Tree Resource Book for Genealogical Research (find in a library)
Bentley. County Courthouse Book -- a directory of courthouses. Note it is about 10 years old. I wonder if it will be updated, since it is now so easy to find the information on the web.
Tapes:
Articles on the Web
Allen. Beginner's Guide to .... Courthouse Research.
Beginners Guide to Family History Research: Courthouse Records
Davenport. Courthouse Research: Satisfaction or Frustration.
Devin. Clues in the Courthouse.
Genealolgy.com All About Town and County Resources
Library of Michigan. Genealogical Research with Courthouse Records
Marriage Dates (in the courthouse records)
Neill. Courthouse Lessons Learned
Rootsweb Guide. Court Records
Sperry. What to Do When the Courthouse Burns.
Morgan. Five Reasons it's not in the Courthouse
Morgan. How to Work with the Courthouse Staff.
Neill. Court Records. Finding Your Ancestors.
Pylant. Etiquette for Courthouse Research.
Rose. Your Visit to the Courthouse
Finding Courthouses Online
- Directory of U.S. County Courthouses (but lacks links to websites). With the address in hand, though, you can do an easy google search that includes the court title and zip code, e.g.googling "Genesee County Clerk" 48502 brings up the Genesee County Michigan County Clerk's website and "Genesee County Clerk" 14021-0379 brings up the link to the New York Genesee County Clerk. You may have to do some digging around to find the page you want.
- Courthouse Direct includes addresses and links to home pages ("homepage" under the phone number ) of county governments, but you will have to do some click searching to find the webpages of the courts.
- Free Public Records Directory takes you to a variety of resources for a county... some of the free are quite useful, but for some you will have to go to the home page for the county and dig around to find the page you want. Also, some of the links are for paid searches and will take you to a site that charges for the search.
Indexes (examples) Indexing is tricky in courhouse records.... some indexes may be in seprate volumes and some may be at the beginning of each volume. Some records are not indexed.
Some records may be indexed by only one name (a direct index); there may also be an indirect index (an index by the second name). For example, an index by groom's name is a direct index, one by bride's name is indirect. You don't always bet both. When you do get both, they may be in separate volumes, in two parts in a single volume or side by side in a single volume. They are rarely intermingled.
For a more thorough descripion, see Courthouse Indexes Illustrated by Christine Rose. (find in a library)
Published Indexes
- Sampubco has published indexes for scattered counties. Many genealogy libraries have these indexes.
- There are many published indexes to earlier court records in magazines or books.
- Some courthouses, libraries, archives and historical societies now offer online indexes.
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