In Summit Co., if you are talking about commitment due to mental illness, there is an index of these cases or dockets in the probate office, no matter how far back they go. When I inquired about seeing one of them, however, I was told that the records were sealed, although it was for someone who lived in the 1850's. Judith in OH -----Original Message----- From: dorothy boulware [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Friday, December 23, 2005 2:49 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Sealed Court Records Hello, Someone just wrote concerning types of information posted on Stark Co. Probate Index, and mentioned marriages, deaths and even insanity commitments. My question is this: I tried to locate information on a civil commitment, and according to several typed pages distributed at the Stark Library, civil commitment records are held by the Akron Library. When I checked with the Akron Library, they had no idea where the records were. A spokesman at the library told me the commitment records were held by the Probate Court. The Stark Co. Probate Court advised me that all these type records are permanently sealed. The record that I was looking for was dated 1900. What options, do I have for identifying and determining if the person committed was my relative? Or, do I have any? Do sealed records ever have a time limit, in the state of Ohio? Thanks for any help, Dorothy