'Genie, For bankruptcies, the actual paper file would be at the National Archives in Philadelphia. We recently got copies of a Western District bankruptcy filing from 1930, and the file was in Phila. My husband stopped in at Bankruptcy Court in Pittsburgh one day when he was in town (thinking the file would be there) and they told him all of the older files were held by the National Archives. They were able to give him the Case# and Filing Date, which helped when I contacted NARA. If you have the pertinent info (whose name the bankruptcy was filed under, date filed, etc), you can email NARA < philadelphia.archives@nara.gov > and have one of their archivists retrieve the file (they're stored offsite somewhere) and they can then tell you how large it is, and how to go about getting copies. They can print/mail copies up to 50 or 60 pages; anything larger, you have to either go to Phila and copy everything yourself, or hire a company out there to do it for you. They gave me a couple names of companies that do that, but the file I needed was 400+ pages, so we opted to wait till my husband went out to Phila on business and he just stayed an extra day and copied everything using a digital camera. NARA's charges were pretty reasonable, I think the minimum charge is $20.00 plus .25 per page over a certain number. The outside companies charge by the hour, not sure how much. Some of the info in the file I got was pretty boring, notices of meetings, hearings, things like that. Other things were priceless!!!! Copies of bills from creditors listing items purchased for the house, lists of employees who were owed wages, lists of real estate that I had no idea existed. So it was well worth it, I think. Anne On Fri, Jan 3, 2014 at 7:40 PM, carol battin <pagenie@suddenlink.net> wrote: Can someone please tell me where to look for the Western Pennsylvania > Court Records for the second half of the 19th Century? I am specifically > interested in bankruptcy cases. > > Thanks, 'Genie in WV > (with weather reminiscent of my Bethel Park childhood) > >