My recent trip to Kalamazoo was fun,
productive and tiring. With so much to do I had very little down
time, but that's the way it usually is when I go home.
Genealogically speaking, I was able to cross a number of things off
my list. One big thing was to look at the court records relating to
the Christmas morning murder of my grandma's sister (Christmas Morning Murderer Gets Off Easy). I'll describe
what I found later because I still haven't had time to read
everything over and process it. For now I'll share a few tips for
finding old circuit court records in Kalamazoo based on my recent
experience.
The circuit court records I was looking
for were criminal cases or chancery cases (divorces and other cases
in which a judge had to determine what was fair in a dispute between
two parties). If you want to examine records for either of these
types of cases the first thing you will need to do is to find the
docket and case number. Depending on the year in which the case was
filed you will need to look in the clerk's office at the court house
on Kalamazoo avenue or in the index at the WMU Archives. Here are
the lessons I learned while tracking down records.
Always look in the index yourself.
While at the court house I asked to examine the chancery index book
to search for a few divorce cases. The clerk brought out one book,
but not ones covering other years I was interested in. Instead, she
asked me for the specific names I was looking for and came back to
inform me she couldn't find them. I thought that was strange, but
didn't press the issue as I was out of time. The following day at
the WMU Archives, I was searching the chancery index on microfilm
looking for any cases involving my people. I wanted to jump out of
my chair when found two of the divorce cases the court clerk said she
couldn't find. Though the microfilmed chancery records at WMU only
go into 1934, and therefore I couldn't immediately satisfy my
curiosity, the index goes through at least May 1941. The names I was
looking for were clearly written so I can only conclude that the
court clerk was in a hurry and overlooked them. As we genealogists
are more used to searching for certain names (and can pick one out
even when we aren't looking for it) always ask to look in the index
yourself, rather than relying on someone who has nothing invested in
the project.
Circuit court records are not always
on site. Old records (prior to 1980) still in possession of the
Kalamazoo county circuit court are located “six hours north” of
Kalamazoo. So, if you want to look at them you need to plan ahead.
Armed with the docket and case number from the index you can request
that the records be retrieved from wherever in the upper peninsula
they are stored. I guess in the case of a nuclear holocaust they
will be safe. You should request the documents about a week in
advance and keep in mind that deliveries are received on Tuesdays.
Even at the WMU archives, old court records that have not been
microfilmed are located off site so you should ask that records be
pulled in advance of your visit.
Not all chancery cases were
microfilmed by the LDS. A year ago I found out the hard way that
the LDS church did not microfilm all chancery cases. You can imagine
my surprise when I scrolled through the microfilmed records at the
WMU Archives only to discover that the case number I was seeking was
notably absent. It seems that the LDS selected divorce cases or
those in which the names of the parties involved were different for
microfilming. I had two cases in which a mother sued her kids (it
turns out they were mooching or stealing from her). The records were
available, but had to be retrieved from storage. Unfortunately, I
was at the end of my visit. I waited in suspense for my mother to
return to the Archives to peruse the documents and call me to tell me
what the cases were about.
Be prepared to take a lot of notes
or bring a lot of cash. The court house does not allow cameras.
I don't know if mobile scanners are permitted. This is unfortunate
as copy charges at the court house are pretty steep at $1 per page.
After quickly flipping through the files I requested I carefully
flagged items for copying and handed the stack of records to one of
the clerks. Much to my dismay she informed me that copying of the
court stenographer's record was all or nothing. I could not cherry
pick pages for copying. As I was pressed for time, had found many
things I wanted to examine more closely and I had already waited a
whole year to see the records and could not come to the courthouse
whenever I had a spare moment, I pulled some more money from my
wallet. I would also recommend that you count the number of pages you wish to have copied so you know exactly how much it should cost. And be sure to inform the clerk that you do NOT want certified copies because that costs more.
Now that I'm back home I hope to find
the time, eventually, to thoroughly read over everything. I hope to
find some useful information in the pages of the stenographer's
record that I had not initially intended to copy. At least now I can
pore over it at my leisure.
