Research In Court Records

Research In State Court Records  •  Colonial Courts and Their Records  •  State Courts and Their Records
Federal Courts and Their Records  •  Court and Legal Records  •  Contents of Court Records
Published Court Records

If court records are so valuable for genealogical information, why do genealogists hesitate to use them? The answer is simple: They are or appear to be more complicated than census records. Indexes for court records are incomplete, the records themselves seem difficult to decipher, and there are many of them.

American court files mirror U.S. history. Buried away in courthouses and archives everywhere are the dreams and frustrations of millions of citizens. The chances are great that your ancestors have left a detailed record of at least some aspects of their lives in court records. Most of us don’t think of court records as the rich source of personal history that they are.

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  Even if your ancestor is not mentioned in a probate case, consider all of the other procedures which might have resulted in him or her appearing in court records:

FOR DEFINITIONS OF ALL COURT TERMS SEE THE GENEALOGY ENCYCLOPEDIA
  • Admiralty courts (concerning events that took place at sea, on lakes, etc.)
  • Adoptions
  • Affidavits
  • Apprenticeships
  • Bankruptcies
  • Bonds
  • Chancery
  • Civil cases
  • Civil War claims
  • Claims
  • Complaints
  • Court opinions
  • Criminal
  • Decrees
  • Declarations
  • Defendant
  • Depositions
  • Divorce
  • Dockets
  • Guardianship
  • Judgments
  • Jury records
  • Land disputes
  • Marshals’ records
  • Military
  • Minutes
  • Naturalization records
  • Notices
  • Orders
  • Orphan records
  • Petitions
  • Plaintiff
  • Printed court records
  • Probate
  • Receipts
  • Slave and Slave owners
  • Subpoenas
  • Summons
  • Testimony
  • Transcripts
  • Witnesses
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Additional Genealogy Resources

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