Making the Best of a Bad Day in the Courthouse

Six thoughts. Others will have other approaches or additional suggestions.

1. Not everyone will be happy to see you, regardless of your demeanor. Prepare to be surprised.

2. In all ways possible, fit into the office routine as you understand it. Many public employees are overworked and under-appreciated; those who deal with the public often must confront amazing ignorance, unwarranted indignation, or both. One way of coping is to stay in their rut. If they can help you without leaving the rut, everyone will be happier.

3. Learn as much as you can beforehand about the history and the records and your rights. Know the difference between what you need and what you want.

4. Let none of that knowledge show. Ask questions instead.

5. If the person in charge is uncertain, read the situation as putting you both on the same side: "How can we find out?"

6. If the person in charge makes a clearly false statement, leave it alone unless it is crucial. If it is crucial, ask the next question in the least assertive way, for instance, "I thought your web site said . . . -- did I read it wrong?" Or any other opportune stratagem that may lead to a boss person who actually cares, or know the facts, or both.

7. Let there be pauses. It can take time to figure things out. Sometimes clerks can produce the desired record shortly after denying its existence.

8. If possible without making the situation worse, introduce yourself, leave a card, and say you'll be back.

9. If it becomes necessary to formally assert your rights, do so as nicely as possible, and preferably to someone in some position of authority, which is rarely the first person you meet on the first day.




Harold Henderson, "Making the Best of a Bad Day in the Courthouse," Midwestern Microhistory: A Genealogy Blog, posted 4 March 2013 (http://midwesternmicrohistory.blogspot.com : accessed [access date]). [Please feel free to link to the specific post if you prefer.]

Weekend wonderings: when counties do have money...

It's interesting to research in a county courthouse where they've had relatively good times and reliable tax revenues with which to manage their records. Money definitely improves matters, but it doesn't always lead to the best decisions. In a single office I have observed:

(1) lamination of old worn books' pages (good short-term, not always so good long-term);

(2) retyping of old, presumably worn, books (seemingly well done, but where are the originals?); and

(3) good microcopies of every page of every book for copying purposes (gold standard!).

Quite a mix. Where have you seen money especially well used (or otherwise)?



Harold Henderson, "Weekend wonderings: when counties do have money," Midwestern Microhistory: A Genealogy Blog, posted 3 June 2012 (http://midwesternmicrohistory.blogspot.com : accessed [access date]). [Please feel free to link to the specific post if you prefer.]

Top Five MWM Posts for April 2012

I have my own favorites, but these are the people's choices from April (rankings as of late May):

1. Illinois Small City Directories Content and Index (April 5)

2. Indiana Genealogical Society seminar (April 28)

3. Michigan Small City Directories Content and Index (April 30)

4. Top Genealogists on the Web (April 8)

5. Tales from the Courthouse (April 20)


Oh yes, and for you contrarians, this post was the least viewed:

Volunteer for the 1940 Census Indexing! (April 7) 

I'll post the favorites from May in early July, once the dust has settled. Sometimes folks read posts a few days or weeks after the fact.



Harold Henderson, "Top Five MWM Posts for April 2012," Midwestern Microhistory: A Genealogy Blog, posted 2 June 2012 (http://midwesternmicrohistory.blogspot.com : accessed [access date]). [Please feel free to link to the specific post if you prefer.]

Yeah, the marriage license is on line. What about the other stuff?

Kim's post on courthouse research at her blog "Ancestors of mine from Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky and Beyond" has many useful tips. This one struck me because it's an interesting kind of error we're all prone to:

Despite the growing amount of materials appearing on the internet, some records (or at least the complete file of those records) can only be accessed at the courthouse of origination. I have learned over time that I may find a copy of the "original record" online only to learn later that there are 4 or 5 other papers that go with that marriage record that had I not spent some time digging in the county I would never had known and would have missed some very important clues.

Read the whole thing.