Visiting the Courthouse

Once you've researched your ancestors to the point where you can place them in a particular area at a given time, it is time to consider a visit to the local courthouse. Records in county courthouses and other local jurisdictions contain information about your ancestors' day-to-day business.

Certainly, the records available at the courthouse depends on the state or province where it is located, the time period, and the individual practices of the particular county. However, the same basic types of records -- land deeds, wills, marriages, probate records, guardianship records, taxes, etc. -- are created in every locale.

Finding the Right Courthouse
The first step in courthouse research is to discover where your ancestors lived so you can determine where they most likely went to conduct their business. The courthouse which houses your ancestor's records may not always be the one which currently serves the county or locality where your ancestors lived, however:

• Sometimes geography may have made it easier for your ancestors to travel to the courthouse in the next county. While some records, such as land deeds and taxes, would have had to be filed in the jurisdiction where they resided, your ancestors may have opted for a shorter trip to the next county's courthouse when obtaining a marriage license.

• County and other political boundaries change over time, so the government which had jurisdiction over your ancestor's town in the 1800s may not be the same one with jurisdiction today. It may even appear as if your ancestors moved from one county to another over a number of years while, in fact, they may have remained on the same piece of land. Most records will be found in the courthouse of the locality which had jurisdiction during the time period in which your ancestors lived.

Get a good map, research changing boundaries, and make a list of the most likely courthouse candidates. If you find that your first-choice courthouse contains all of the records you expected to find for your ancestors, then you may be able to stop there. Otherwise, move on to the next courthouse on your list.

Alternative Locations for Court Records
If the records you want to look at aren't at the courthouse, they may have been transferred to central, state, and provincial archives. In this case, microfilm copies are usually available for reference at the courthouse. Local libraries, historical and genealogical societies, and family history centers may also contain microfilmed copies and indexes.