Greetings!!
Another free or nearly free resource is searching court records online. Some courts do charge a minimal fee, however many offer free searches but if you need certified copies they charge for those. Unless you are trying to prove you are a legal heir to inherit an estate you most likely will not need certified copies.
So, how do you know if a particular court has searchable data bases? Not all do!! Google has become my best friend when it comes to searching out court records. First, you need to know the name of the community, county and state your ancestor lived/died in to begin. I'll use my great grand aunt Phebe L. Parker Banker Edmonds who I recently found. Phebe went by her middle name primarily and it shows up in many different ways, Loudema, Ludemia, Louise and Louisa making the search a little more challenging. So, I first searched her husband's names. Her first husband was Isaac W Banker. They lived in Harford, Cortland County, NY.
Go to google and type in, "Cortland County NY Court Records". A list of courts will appear and usually at the top is the one you want. In the description it will say something like "search online court records" or "search land records" whatever they have available to search. Keep in mind not all courts have online records available for searching. As luck would have it Cortland County NY did have land records and some wills available for searching. Take your time and read each page of instructions well as each court has their own system of doing things. You really need to have patience when doing this type of search.
I did not find much on Isaac W Banker, except he did own a lot of property in Cortland County. So I then searched her second husband, Jonathan C Edmonds. Bam! I hit the mother load!! Mr. Edmonds also had a lot of property but he also had a will that was probated. In the will I found that he left his entire estate except for $100 to his wife, my great grand aunt. The $100 went to his daughter from his first marriage. I was then able to find where the deed to the property was transferred to Aunt Phebe, then Aunt Phebe gave her step daughter for the sum of $1 about half the land.
Because Harford was such a small community it made it quite easy to trace the ownership of the land. Aunt Phebe sold her house to a niece in 1930 for the sum of $1, just about a year before she died. She continued to live in the house until her passing. The niece then sold the house in 1969 to a son and he sold it in 1970 to someone outside of the family.
We had a picture of the house from 1931. Someone had inadvertently written on it that it was Aunt Deal's house, a sister to Aunt Phebe. But that was incorrect, it was indeed Aunt Phebe's. From all the court records I was actually able to find the house and what it looks like in more recent years on google earth. How cool is that?? It has changed dramatically over the years but definitely the same house, same address.
Aunt Phebe's house in Harford, NY.
This picture is from google earth.
Also from google earth but a slightly different time frame and a side view. Obviously a lot of work has been done on the house over the years.
Sorry about the quality of the first picture, it is a copy of a copy of a copy I think, LOL. It is quite interesting to see how the house has changed over the years.
I have several documents that I saved from my court records search, which I am very grateful to have.
So, to recap, use google, search name of county and state with court records, or probate records. Then start poking around the court web sites to see if they have an online court records search engine. You might get lucky, you might not. But, nothing ventured, nothing gained!!
Until next time,,,,,