Hello all. Has anyone pursued "divorce papers" from somewhere around 1892 - 1900. This could be a date of filing to the whole file; I really don't care other than to confirm or deny there was a divorce or petition for a divorce. I'm guessing - if true - the filing would have been in Westchester Cty, Bronx Cty, NYC or Brooklyn. If you know where (or if) these records are retained and how to access them, I will be most appreciative. Thanks much, Nancy

Nancy, Call a county clerk's office and you will probably be told that divorce papers are sealed forever in New York State. However, I have always thought that there must be some early period when they would now be open to the public. I just phoned Rensselaer Co. in upstate NY. Their divorce documents begin about 1930. The lady didn't know where earlier ones would be filed. I then phoned the Westchester county clerk's office twice. I learned that their divorce records go back to 1906. Earlier ones would be archived, but not at their office, and wherever they are they would be open to genealogists. I would try the Westchester County Archives first. Cliff Lamere ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Nancy Davis wrote: >Hello all. Has anyone pursued "divorce papers" from somewhere around 1892 - 1900. This could be a date of filing to the whole file; I really don't care other than to confirm or deny there was a divorce or petition for a divorce. I'm guessing - if true - the filing would have been in Westchester Cty, Bronx Cty, NYC or Brooklyn. If you know where (or if) these records are retained and how to access them, I will be most appreciative. Thanks much, Nancy > > >

Nancy, I ran into a similar situation once and will relate a possible work around. First of all I really like Cliff's answer and would trust it implicitly, see how he takes the bull by the horns! He is full of wisdom and I value any comment from Cliff greatly. Now just in case you still get stonewalled by a clerk somewhere, here is another approach. "Divorce Records are Sealed!" So we're always told. That's true but before the divorce took place there were almost ALWAYS preliminary court appearances in which the nasty details got aired in public, and those records are NOT sealed. What you have to do is quite a bit of detective work, but they are open to the public. The cases might show spousal abuse, or infidelity, (the norm,) or for what ever reasons, and the court appearances will appear in the "Index to Civil Cases," (or a title close to that,) and you will usually find those huge index books in the County Clerk's Office. Once you find the names in the index, (surnames only,) and it is a little difficult and takes a lot of snooping, especially if it is "SMITH vs SMITH." You then can look at a copy of the transcript of the case and it will be VERY interesting. All the juicy details, the "other woman," is named, (probaly other man also but never have found a case yet,) and who witnessed the situation , addresses, dates, times, witness testimony, and so on. Better that television! I doubt many people are aware of this, but it will make for interesting reading. Good luck. Dick Hillenbrand On 2/1/07, Nancy Davis <ndavis1@san.rr.com> wrote: > > Hello all. Has anyone pursued "divorce papers" from somewhere around 1892 > - 1900. This could be a date of filing to the whole file; I really don't > care other than to confirm or deny there was a divorce or petition for a > divorce. I'm guessing - if true - the filing would have been in Westchester > Cty, Bronx Cty, NYC or Brooklyn. If you know where (or if) these records > are retained and how to access them, I will be most appreciative. Thanks > much, Nancy > *************************************** > Have you checked out the Westchester County GenWeb site yet? > http://www.rootsweb.com/~nywestch/ > *************************************** > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > NYWESTCH-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message > -- Dick Hillenbrand Upstate New York Genealogy website: http://www.unyg.com blog: http://ny-genes.blogspot.com/ member: Association of Professional Genealogists (APG)