All My Ancestors

I’ve begun indexing court records at my job.  The box I’ve worked on so far contains divorce cases from district court in 1914. The files are much like probate files I’ve used in other courthouses.  For the most part, legal sized pages are folded into fourths, placed into a cardboard envelope, and tied with a red twill ribbon.

These records are a gold-mine of information, and for now, I’m very frustrated by not being able to do more in-depth indexing.  For a variety of reasons, I’m only recording which court, the type of case and the names of the defendant and the plaintiff.   Because of lack of space, we cannot unfold and put these documents into a file folder.  I hope to eventually be able to scan them so they can be more easily accessed and indexed.  Right now, they are in a basement storage in a huge stack of boxes.  My efforts are the the beginning foray into organizing these records for use.

I have not worked in divorce records before.  The information found in these petitions nearly always includes the date and place of the marriage.  One I read today indicated the marriage took place in 1899 Havana, Cuba–was the groom a soldier?  How did the bride get to Cuba?  Neither name appeared to be a Cuban surname.  I want to know the story of this wedding.  A surprising number of the marriages did  not take place in Oklahoma, the site of the divorce.

In about 95% of the cases I’ve processed so far, the woman is suing the man for the divorce–she typically states that he does not provide support, and, in many cases, that he has disappeared.  This is substantiated by the files containing some documents such as returned mail as well as notices published in the newspaper requiring the defendant to respond to the summons.  Too often the woman describes being verbally and physically abused–again, substantiated by restraining orders.  One case names the person with whom the defendant has been “committing adultry,” and another phrase is handwritten in–”…and with other persons known to the defendant.”

AS I’ve said, the majority of the records in this box are divorces.  But today I came across a case filed for breach of promise.  The plaintiff/woman was asking for $10,000 in damages.  She said she’d quit her job at the telephone company and made arrangements to be married as she had been promised.  She even included a letter he’d written her from Texas.  From my non-legally proficient eyes, it looked like she had a good case.  Unfortunately for my curiosity, there was nothing in the file that showed the final disposition of the case.

There was also an annulment petition.  Evidently the groom was only 17 when he married and his “next friend,” his father in this case, was petitioning for annulment–the basis for the petition was that the groom was not 21, there were no children, and the couple was not living together.  Another story to pique my curiosity.

One of the few cases of the husband suing the wife for divorce was a man stating that he’d met all the duties and responsibilities of a husband only to find that his wife would not cook meals or mend his clothes.  He stated that he’d made arrangements for her to be able to shop at the best grocers and butchers, but that she insisted he eat out, incurring additional expense.  He also spelled out her unwillingness to mend his clothes, also incurring expense since he had to hire a tailor.  In addition, he said he made money available to hire household help, but she refused to hire anyone.  So he was asking for their marriage to be dissolved.

This peek into 1914 matrimony and law has been fascinating. The names and ages of the children are included, and, in some cases, the name and address of the business and it’s financial worth, usually owned by the husband.  In one particularly sticky custody case, the names and addresses of both sets of grandparents was in the file.  Often the woman asks that her maiden name be restored so there’s another valuable piece of information.

The gloves I wear while processing the papers are filthy after handling about 20 of the packets.  Refolding the documents and putting them into their cardboard envelopes goes against everything I know about preserving such documents.  But for now, we need to record enough information to make them minimally identifiable and accessible.  Here’s hoping they retain their fascination for me.

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