United States, Court Records with Divorce, Relief, Bastardy, and Naturalizations Records - International Institute

Divorce Records
As previously stated, early divorces were, often, the jurisdiction of the state legislature. Later they became the jurisdiction of a local court. Unfortunately that court varies from state to state (see Greenwood’s Researcher’s Guide to American Genealogy  for a comprehensive list of the divorce court of each state.)

Divorce records are very valuable. When a couple with children sought divorce, the names and ages of the children became part of the record as did the vital records of the parents.

One such record appears in the Superior Court minutes of Pickens County, Georgia, when Stephen Kirby sued L. Malissa Kirby for divorce on 27 September 1869. The minutes indicate that Stephen had married Malissa White and was now willing to give her one hundred acres of land including the homestead provisions and, house, furniture, and all stock upon the farm in the state of South Carolina where the defendant resided. The couple had grown children who are not named in the suit.

The New Hampshire Bureau of Vital Statistics in Concord, maintains a card file (single sided preprinted form) which were provided by the superior court of the county in which the divorce was obtained. Information provided on the card includes full name and residence (generally only the name of the town) of the husband and wife; docket number; date of marriage; place of marriage; sex of libellant; whether or not the case was contested; date of decree; cause; and number of minor children affected by the decree.

The name of the court and the docket number on the index card are essential pieces of information needed to find the case file.

Divorce records are generally open for public access.

Relief for the Poor and Infirmed
During the seventeen and eighteen hundreds, counties or communities frequently played the roll of caring for the indigent and infirmed. These relief records can frequently be located within the court records or town records.

The New England town had a system, commonly called “Warning Out of Town” whereby if “strangers” came into town with no visible means of support they were warned to go back from whence they came. The 1805 Laws of New Hampshire provides a good example of the law.

Bastardy Records
Although some of us may not care for the term bastard, it has been a legal term for centuries and pertains to illegitimacy (children born before the lawful marriage of its parents). Frequently, the support of the illegitimate child fell upon the community.

Early in our history New Englanders took bold measures to find the fathers of the children and to force the fathers to support their children. Searching the court record minutes may reward us. The rewards are evident in Melinde Sanborn’s book, Lost Babes: 

On some occasions men have cared for their illegitimate children without being forced to do so by the courts. On 29 September 1883, Stephen Kirby of Pickens County, Georgia, provided for his illegitimate son, William Davis Coley by conveying some land to him and his mother.

In other instances the community or county taxes may have been used to subsidize for the care of the child as was the case of the bastardy payment. On 4 September 1826, the Ordinary Court of Clarke County, Georgia, made a payment of twenty dollars to Nancy M. Carty “for support of her illegitimate child” (see Figure 3.7).

Bastardy Payment to Nancy M. Carty



Naturalizations
Although it is not our purpose to discuss the intricacies of naturalization records, it is important for us to review a couple of facts. Prior to 1906, an alien could obtain naturalization in any court with a seal. That means that we could find citizenship records of our ancestors in any state, local, or federal court. When the process took place in a state or local court, there would be state statutes which laid out the procedure and the process and amount of information might vary from time to time and place to place.

In 1830, James Harmon Lloyd became a U.S. citizen through proceedings at the Inferior Court of Clarke County, Georgia. During the October term, 1838, of the Inferior Court of Clarke County, Hugh White, born in 1816 in Larne, county Antrim, Ireland, filed his naturalization papers.