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County Courthouse Records . . . A Vital Step In Researching Your Family History
By Kathy Jones-Kristof | February 3, 2008
In my post on Jan 28, 2008 titled In the Beginning, How To Start Your Family Research, I said that vital statistics such as birth, death and marriage records were only required to be reported beginning in the early 1900’s in most states. Prior to that time, there were counties that collected this information about their citizens. I love those folks! Unfortunately, during the Revolutionary and Civil War some Courthouse records were destroyed. This makes genealogists’ work harder, but not impossible. We can reconstruct the information we need from census records, wills, tax lists, deeds, church records and estate sales—see my post about Estate Sales on Jan 21, 2008. I’ll be discussing the other methods in future posts. Now we’ll talk about County Records.
When searching for vital statistics, start at the County Courthouse. If you can’t visit the Courthouse in person—few of us can—copies of their records can be accessed via your local library, college libraries, state libraries, state archives and the Latter Day Saints Library.
At your local public library, go to the research librarian, tell her/him what you’re looking for and ask how to search for records. I love librarians. They have a lot more resources than most of us know. For your state and college libraries, check their websites to learn what they have to offer and how to access their holdings. You may even be able to order their microfilm through your local library. For the Latter Day Saints, or LDS, Library, I’ll also be discussing how to use their website in a later post. (See Feb 15, 2008.) You can order their microfilm at the Family History Center in their local churches.
Now that you’ve ordered your microfilm and the librarian has shown you how to use the microfilm viewer—remember to ask if you can make copies from the film—you’re ready to start searching it for information. What does a Register look like? The images below are of a Marriage Register from Alleghany Co, VA for 1867. The Register was two pages across so it took two images to see the full length of the Register. The quality of these images isn’t great, but most of the columns are legible.
This Register contained a lot of information about my ancestors including that fact that both the bride and groom were named Jones, which doubles my research troubles. (No, they weren’t kin to each other so there’s no need for any hillbilly jokes.) Don’t expect this much information from all county Registers. I’ve seen marriage listings that had only the groom’s name.
If you fail to find your ancestor in the Register you ordered, go through a second time to be certain you didn’t miss anything. It’s easy to overlook the very name you’re looking for when looking at old handwriting. Even if I don’t find the ancestor I’m looking for, I make notes on anyone with surnames from my family tree in case I need them later.
Below are a few hints for reading old Registers:
1. If you see an “f” that drops below the line, that usually means “s.” A double “ff” in a word also means an “s”. Any name that starts with a double “ff” may mean an “F”, but there are no guarantees. It might also mean “S”. Just be flexible when you see any “f”.
2. In Registers organized by months, check at the end of the year to see if anything was added for earlier months that may have been filed late at the courthouse. Also check at the beginning of the following year for the same reason.
3. An alphabetical listing doesn’t mean everything is alphabetized correctly. Who knew that C’s might be listed with S’s and F’s with T’s? Names can also be spelled creatively. Example: I missed an ancestor named Orebach on several years of tax lists because it was being spelled Arebach. Some county clerks who get the whole alphabetical list perfect may include extra names at the very end which were filed at the courthouse too late to be included in the original list, so always check at the end of each letter and especially after the Z’s just to be certain you haven’t missed those late additions.
4. Additional little notes added after your ancestor’s name, even if it doesn’t make sense, should be added to your file. It must’ve meant something at the time and eventually you may figure it out and realize its importance. It could be his occupation or may indicate where he lived in the county and was intended to differentiate between two men with the same name who lived in the same region.
After you’ve found the person you’re looking for, write down every piece of information in the Register, even if you think you don’t think you need it. Write down the title of the Register, the dates it covers, the county and state it’s from and the microfilm number. Record where you ordered it from, and if it was from a local library also note where they ordered it from in case you need to order the microfilm again. This information is important. It is your source. It proves that the information in your Family History came from the original Courthouse register where the birth/marriage/death was officially recorded by the people involved in the actual act.
If you find your ancestor and now you’re ready to take the next step, or you didn’t find her/him and need to look elsewhere, you might consider subscribing to an online database such as Ancestry.com or Genealogy.com. I’ll discuss both of those in my next posts. Until then, start ordering those microfiche. You have ancestors to find!
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Topics: All Levels of Genealogists |