This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Author: bhastie8269 Surnames: Classification: queries Message Board URL: http://boards.rootsweb.com/localities.northam.usa.states.michigan.counties.wayne/19063/mb.ashx Message Board Post: My grandfather was born and raised in Detroit. He was an illegitimate child; if I were wanting to look to see if there were ever a court order for his father to pay support, where would I go to look? My grandfather was born in 1935 and passed away in 1986. Important Note: The author of this message may not be subscribed to this list. If you would like to reply to them, please click on the Message Board URL link above and respond on the board.

In New York State the various County Clerks have large index books about the size of a census book, that is titled something like "Index to Civil Actions". You would have to search several volumes around the years that you suspect that child support might have been an issue. Unfortunately the index is "surname vs. surname" so if it's SMITH or something common you will be looking for some long time. These are open records and once you find a case number a clerk will fetch the file. As you only will have one surname to work with it will be even more daunting. This process can be used to find preliminary cases that lead up to a divorce, which then becomes a sealed record. Quite often there are cases about abandonment, child support, assault, abuse, etc. These preliminary actions to an eventual divorce are not sealed. I have used these often and you get all the juicy details, such as, 'the other woman', or 'the other man,' names, ages, dates of birth, addresses, occupations, if ever in the military, etc. Not sure about Michigan, but suspect the process might be similar. http://unyg.com Dick Hillenbrand Upstate New York Genealogy Please come back and post your success story. On Wed, Jul 31, 2013 at 4:25 PM, gc-gateway@rootsweb.com < gc-gateway@rootsweb.com> wrote: > This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. > > Author: bhastie8269 > Surnames: > Classification: queries > > Message Board URL: > > > http://boards.rootsweb.com/localities.northam.usa.states.michigan.counties.wayne/19063/mb.ashx > > Message Board Post: > > My grandfather was born and raised in Detroit. He was an illegitimate > child; if I were wanting to look to see if there were ever a court order > for his father to pay support, where would I go to look? My grandfather was > born in 1935 and passed away in 1986. > > Important Note: > The author of this message may not be subscribed to this list. If you > would like to reply to them, please click on the Message Board URL link > above and respond on the board. > > > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > MIWAYNE-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message >