DOCUMENTING ANCESTRAL DIVORCES

OBJECTIVES

Many ancestors, near and long ago, are lost in these American records. In this Group and discussions we will learn that using original divorce documents is part of the process of appreciating our ancestors and solving pedigree problems. We will discuss U.S. search strategies and the court documents themselves, with samples from newly availableFamily History Library collections.

SUPPORTING IDEAS:

1.The legal proceedings surrounding divorces in America naturally left an array of documentation with varying types of evidence. Some of these paper trails are public from colonial and pioneer days up to the current decade.

2.These court documents proffer invaluable information about name changes, residence changes, children, occupations, property, etc. They often add stories and testaments to the bare facts of the skeleton in the family closet; emotional, financial, religious, and social contexts may be revealed.

3.These documents may be filed in several jurisdictions based on changing residency requirements. The historical documents were not created for genealogists, were often filed with voluminous court papers, and were poorly indexed. Their use is complex!

I.INTRODUCTION

BACKGROUND

Divorce is the tragic process of granting certain legal rights related to marriage. The chaos, however, leaves many paper trails. There are also ‘patterns in the pain’, historical migration paths to American locales where divorce was more possible.

Thejudicial process requires several steps and many types of documents in a long paper trail that may last years or decades. The process has never been standardized on a national level. Trends in the number of “terminations” by divorce rather than death show several peaks. Charts, maps, and explanations are found in several sources of our Bibliography.

II.DOCUMENTS to LOCATE:

Minutes, calendars & dockets

Sheriff’s Summons, appearances & withdrawals

Lis pendens & ex parte

Complaint or Petitions with affidavits

Motions with affidavits

Depositions & discoveries

Answers & responses

Court Order, Decree, Judgment, Rejection

Case files, packets,loose papers

COURTS OF AUTHORITY AND RECORD:

These are the courts where you will locate most of the original documents.

ChanceryCircuit CourtCommon Pleas

County CourtCriminalDistrict Court

EquityFamily CourtLegislature

MayorialMunicipalOrdinary

ProbateQuarter SessionsSuperior

Supreme JudicialSurrogateTerritorial

III.CLUES in OTHER RECORDS

newspaper notices and stories

dockets = authorizations, bastardy, interdictions, separations of bed & board

city directories (esp. for women, lawyers, attorneys, courts)

naturalization applications, repatriations, etc.

military papers (esp. discharges, pensions, soldiers declarations, draft cards)

family histories and personal histories

IV.SAMPLES FROM Family History Library COLLECTIONS

You will note that about a dozen states have some statewide indexes or locators for divorces. Some files are restricted, and cannot be circulated from the Family History Library (FHL). Most can be loaned tone of the 4,500 free Family History Centers. A very few online sources follow this list.

AL Dept. of Health divorce certificates and index, 1938-1992 (337 microfilms)

AL Archives county divorce reports, 1818-1929, indexes 1818-1937 (11 films)

AL Shelby Co. Chancery, Circuit, Probate div.alpha cases, 1839-1950 (28 new)

AZ Cochise Co. District and Superior divorce records, 1881-1930 (67 new)

CA Sacramento Co. Superior divorces and naturalizations, 1879-1900 (173 new)

CO statewide divorce indexes, 1900-1939, 1975-1992 (19)

CT State Archives Superior Court alpha divorce withdrawals, 1808-1900 (9)

CT Litchfield Co. Superior divorce papers, 1752-1922 (26)

FL Bureau of Vital Statistics divorce & annulment index, 1927-1969 (143 fiche)

FL BVS divorces granted and marriages annulled, 1927-1950 (141 new films)

 GA Dept. of Health divorce register index, 1965-1992 (149 restricted fiche)

 HI Archives Circuit Courts divorce records, 1849-1915 (34), index 1951-1990 (3 restr.)

 ID Ada Co. (Boise) District Court judgments & dockets, 1865-1931 (10)

IA Scott County District Court alpha divorce packets, 1837-1940 (71)

IL Adams Co. (Quincy) Circuit Court divorce boxes, 1851-1922 (63)

IN Marion Co. (Indianapolis) Circuit Court order books, 1822-1909 (100)

KS Sedgwick Co. District Court divorce cases, 1871-1917 (60 new)

KY Vital Statistics divorce indexes, 1974-1995 (82 fiche)

LA Orleans Parish District Court divorces & annulments, 1880-1924 (21)

MA State House divorce index, 1952-1970 (2)

MI Calhoun Co. Circuit Court chancery calendars & files, 1847-1951 (299 new)

MS Harrison Co. Chancery divorce cases, 1916-1964, index 1916-1950 (74 new)

MT Deer Lodge Co. District Ct. divorce cases, 1890-1950, index 1888-1966 (21)

NH BVR alpha divorce certificates, 1938-1947 (2),index to pre-1938 div & ann (8)

NC State Archives reference index cards, 1665-1970 (14 new)

NC Mecklenburg County Superior Ct. alpha divorce records, 1846-1969 (62 new)

OH Cuyahoga County Common Pleas divorce records, 1876-1882 (7)

OK Tulsa County District Ct. divorce records, 1926-1950, (317 new)

OR DVS divorce index by husbands, 1981-1990 (20 restr. fiche)

OR Clackamas County Circuit Court divorce cases and index 1852-1920 (60 new)

PA Philadelphia Co. Common Pleas divorce dockets, 1851-1875 (8)

TN Tipton Co. County Court divorce records, 1911-1950 (10)

TX Dallas County District Court civil cases with post-1890 div., 1846-1958 (333)

UT LDS PBO annual Stake reports, Form E, 1908-1917 (29 +)

UT Salt Lake Co. Probate Court divorce records, 1852-6, 1877-1887 (film 431227)

WA Thurston County Superior Court divorce cases, 1889-1952 (71)

WI CHS divorce indexes, 1965-1984 (38 restr. fiche)

WI Dane County Circuit and Municipal divorce files, 1850-1928 (77)

BONUS:

☼WPA, HRS surveys

☼gen socieites, gen webs, FHCs

Internet: (addresses subject to change)

CO 1851-1939, 1968- at

KY 1973-1993 at

TX 1968-2003 at

UT UHRC, few indexes at

Ancestry’s fee siteincludes: AL 1950-9; AR 1923-7, 34-9; FL 1927-1969, 00-1; VT 1981-4, 89-01

V.STRATEGIC TIPS

 TIMELINE + TARGET APPROACH + MULTIPLE LOCALES:

 PROCEDURES:

» legislative vs. secular

» civil vs. criminalcourtroom

» domestic litigation and family law

 LEGAL TERMS OVER TIME:

» a mensa et thoro» feme sole

» a vinculo matrimonii» feme covert

» desertion, abandonment, separation, divorce, dissolution, annulment

 NUMBERING SYSTEMS & INDEXES:

 RESTRICTIONS:

 WOMEN & CHILDREN:

 CULTURES & CUSTOMS:

 CONFIDENTIALITY:

FOR FURTHER STUDY ♂ ♀

Family Tree Resource Book for Genealogists, 2004

Sourcebook to Public Record Information, 2002

Great Catastrophe of My Life: Divorce in the Old Dominion, 2002

Framing American Divorce: From the American Revolutionary Generation to the Victorians, 1999

Beneath the Fault Line: The Popular and Legal Culture of Divorce in Twentieth-Century America, 1997

Untying the Knot: A Short History of Divorce, 1991

 Divorce: An American Tradition, 1991

Black's Law Dictionary : Definitions of the Terms and Phrases of American and English Jurisprudence, Ancient and Modern, 6th ed. 1990

Governing the Hearth: Law and the Family in 19th-Century America

 History of American Law, 2nd ed. 1985

Road to Reno: A History of Divorce in the U.S., 1962