Link To This Page — Contact Us —
New Hampshire County Court, Probate, Tax and Other Miscellaneous Records
New Hampshire Census Records • New Hampshire Vital Records • New Hampshire Court Records
New Hampshire Church Records • New Hampshire Cemetery Records • New Hampshire Land Records
New Hampshire Military Records • New Hampshire Archives & Societies • New Hampshire Publications
Browse Counties
See Also Researching Court Records, Researching Probate Records, Research In Immigration & Naturalization Records and 
Researching Tax Records
On-Site County Court Records Search - Find nearly any New Hampshire court record online! Many court records are not digitized yet, which signifies the only way to obtain these records is by visiting the actual Pennsylvania courthouses. Someone from our network of court-runners will go retrieve the records and then send you the outcomes. Average response time is 38 hours. New Hampshire Civil Records include Lawsuits, Bankruptcies, Liens and judgments, Marriage/divorce judicial proceeding, Child custody, Civil rights violations ands Other. New Hampshire Criminal Records include Violent offenses, Theft and robbery, DUI/DWI's, Drugs and alcohol, Sexual crimes, Some traffic violations, Behavioral.
Definitions of Common Court Terms
| FOR DEFINITIONS OF ALL COURT TERMS SEE THE GENEALOGY ENCYCLOPEDIA | ||
|---|---|---|
|
|
|
New Hampshire Court Records
See Also Research In State Court Records
Each county, in addition to having a registry of probate and of deeds, has court records. At different times inferior courts of common pleas, superior courts, and courts of general sessions of the peace existed to deal with civil and criminal cases, equity, and naturalizations. The superior court records include naturalization records.
Divorces, although indexed beginning in the 1870s at the Bureau of Vital Records, are all filed at the county superior court. Some earlier ones are in legislative petitions.
The province court records to 1771 are card indexed at the New Hampshire Records and Archives. After that time, the county seat traditionally housed court records. In a few cases, card indexes to plaintiff and defendant are available to guide the search. Original county court records now at the New Hampshire Records and Archives instead of the county seat include Grafton (1773–1899), Hillsborough (to 1880), Merrimack (to 1870), Rockingham (1772–1860), Strafford (1773–1850), and Sullivan (to 1880). Microfilm of Grafton, Merrimack, and Strafford court record copy and docket books are at the New Hampshire State Library. New Hampshire State Papers, vol. 40, contains court records from the Dover-Portsmouth Quarterly Court (1640–92) and there are some general court records and indexes both at the New Hampshire Records and Archives and on microfilm at the FHL for the colonial period. After statehood, the court system became established along county lines. The only court records that have been abstracted or published for the post-colonial period are Laura Penny Hulslander’s abstracts of Strafford County Inferior Court Records, 1773–83 (Bowie, Md.: Heritage Books, 1990).
- Submit a website for New Hampshire Court Records
- Order County Court, Civil or Criminal Records
- New Hampshire Court Books at Amazon.com
- Search Court Records From All States
- Search County Court Records
- Search County Criminal Records with a Criminal Background Check
- Search for Registered Sex Offenders in your local Area
- Court, Land, Wills & Financial - Court records are an often overlooked, yet very valuable tool for finding information to assist you in your research. Land records, such as deeds, allow you to tie an ancestor to a specific place at a point in time. Other court records like those dealing with finances and estates often list related family members or give interesting details like the total value of property owned by your ancestors to add interest to your family history.
New Hampshire Probate Records
See Also Research In State Probate Records
Probate records include a variety of documents created to support court proceedings in the settlement of an individuals' estates. The number and type of probate records created may vary over time in different jurisdictions and due to the amount of real and personal property involved. The various documents generated in the probate process are rarely filed together......
Probate records covering the colonial period from 1636-1771, originally filed in Portsmouth and Exeter, are in the collection at the New Hampshire Records and Archives, and abstracts have been published in volumes 31-39 of the New Hampshire State Papers. Probate records for residents of towns along the Massachusetts border may be found in Massachusetts counties. For those in Rockingham County, see Essex County (Mass.) Probate Index, 1636-1840 (see Massachusetts-Probate Records).
After the formation of counties, probates were filed at county seats. All probate records, except for Coos County whose records were burned prior to 1887, are extant.
Abstracts and indexes are only the tip of the iceberg in probate records, however. Each county holds original files that include letters, affidavits, bills, receipts, original wills, and inventories. Not all material in the file was recorded in probate books. Consequently, a probate search is not complete without surveying the materials in the original files.
- Submit a website for New Hampshire Probate Records
- New Hampshire Probate Records, 1635-1753
- This database contains probate records (mostly wills and inventories) from the state of New Hampshire from 1635-1753. The goal of this work was to make more available the probate records created during the provincial/colonial period of the state. After the creation of New Hampshire's counties, separate probate courts were established. Their records are kept at the county seats and are easily accessible. The documents found within this work were taken from the originals, which were (in 1907) located at the office of the Secretary of State, but today are in possession of the New Hampshire Records and Archives. Wills are printed in their entirety, except for the preamble. Any omissions are indicated by asteriks.
The probate process transfers the legal responsibility for payment of taxes, care and custody of dependent family members, liquidation of debts, and transfer of property title to heirs from the deceased to an executor/executrix (where there is a will), to an administrator/administratix (if the person dies intestate - without a will), or to a guardian/conservator if there are heirs under the age of twenty-one years or in cases where a person has become incompetent through disease or disability. - New Hampshire Probate Books at Amazon.com
New Hampshire Immigration Records
See Also Research In State Immigration & Naturalization Records
New Hampshire was not a significant port of immigration, even though thirty-two of its miles are on the Atlantic coast. In addition to a sizable French-Canadian and Atlantic-Canadian migration from the north, many of Massachusetts’ immigrants found their way to New Hampshire for work in manufacturing in the late nineteenth century. The collections of the American-Canadian Genealogical Society Library, New Hampshire Historical Society, and New Hampshire State Library are excellent sources for research.
- Immigration & Emigration - As our ancestors moved from one country to another, details about their lives were recorded on passenger lists and government documents. Immigration and emigration records can help you learn where your ancestors originally came from, where they went, when they left, who they traveled with, and more.
New Hampshire Tax Records
See Also Researching in Tax Records
No thorough survey has yet been attempted to locate all the annual tax lists for New Hampshire towns. They can be found in manuscript collections in public libraries, in town clerk’s offices among the pages of the annual town meeting minutes, and at the archives and other repositories. Both residents and nonresidents who owned property or businesses might be listed on the annual assessment, which would indicate the number of voting-age males as polls, and such items as the type and acreage of land, animals, and milling products. Following annual tax lists can provide important clues for ages of males (nearly always ages twenty-one to fifty and occasionally sixteen to sixty) and for men moving to or leaving a town, since non-landowners were listed as well, although a few officials were usually exempt.
One important collection of tax records, which has been microfilmed from the originals held at the New Hampshire Records and Archives, is the multi-volume nonresident tax lists (1849–74). Some printed tax lists are listed under Census Records. In 1798 a U.S. direct tax was ordered. Heritage Books has printed the returns that have been located for nine New Hampshire towns located at that time in Strafford County.
