Washington County Divorce Records - FamilySearch Historical Records

United States Washington

What Is in the Collection?
This collection includes digital images of divorce records from the civil courts in the following counties:


 * Clark
 * Cowlitz
 * Grays Harbor
 * Lewis
 * Mason
 * Pacific
 * Thurston
 * Wahkiakum

The records are arranged by year and then in boxed files, alphabetically by name.

What Can These Records Tell Me?
These records contain the following information:


 * Names of interested parties
 * Divorce date
 * Name of court
 * County of court
 * Conditions of the divorce decree

In addition the records may also contain:


 * Ages or calculated birth year of husband and wife
 * Names of minor children
 * Names of other relatives
 * Court costs

How Do I Search the Collection?
To begin your search it is helpful to know at least some of the following:
 * The name of the parties involved in the divorce.
 * The approximate date of divorce.
 * The place where the divorce occurred.
 * The names of family members who may be named in the divorce decree.

Compare the information on the image to what you already know about your ancestor to determine if it is the correct family or person. You may need to compare several images before you find your ancestor.

View images in this collection by visiting the Browse Pagethen: ⇒Select the "County" ⇒Select the "Case File Number Range"

For tips about searching on-line collections see the on-line article FamilySearch Search Tips and Tricks.

What Do I Do Next?
If these are indexes, the original records may contain additional information than was not indexed, or the information might have been indexed incorrectly. You may want to search for the original record at the Washington State Regional Archives, SouthWest Region.

I Found Who I Was Looking For, What Now?

 * Use the information to find other records such as birth, christening, marriage, census, land and death records.
 * Use the information to find additional family members.
 * Repeat this process with additional family members found, to find more generations of the family.
 * Church Records often were kept years before government records were required and are a good source for finding ancestors before 1900.

I Can’t Find Who I’m Looking For, What Now?

 * Try viewing the original record to see if there were errors in the transcription of the name, age, residence, etc. Remember that there may be more than one person in the records with the same name.
 * Collect entries for every person who has the same surname. This list can help you identify possible relations that can be verified by records.
 * If you cannot locate your ancestor in the locality in which you believe they lived, then try searching records of a nearby locality in an area search.
 * Standard spelling of names typically did not exist during the periods our ancestors lived in. Try variations of your ancestor’s name while searching the index or browsing through images.
 * Remember that sometimes individuals went by nicknames or alternated between using first and middle names. Try searching for these names as well.
 * Search the indexes and records of Washington, United States Genealogy.
 * Search in the Washington Archives and Libraries.

Citing This Collection
Citing your sources makes it easy for others to find and evaluate the records you used. When you copy information from a record, list where you found that information. Here you can find citations already created for the entire collection and for each individual record or image.

Collection Citation:

Image citation: