GENEALOGICAL RESEARCH IN
TENNESSEE COUNTY COURTHOUSES
Marriage records. How simple, get the license, get married and have the solemnized marriage recorded. Yes? No! In the nineteenth century and earlier, there was a little more to it and more records involved. Many counties in Tennessee still have their marriage bond books. These record books recorded the bond which was taken out by the groom to prove that he was going to marry the bride. The bond books also recorded the consent statements by parents when the parties where under the age of 21. Regretfully most of these bond record books have been lost through negligence and the passage of years. Once the bond was obtained and secured, and consent to marry given by parents or guardians, the groom would obtain a license and the couple would get married. Once the marriage had been solemnized the minister or the groom would return the license to have the minister's return recorded. Sometimes this was recorded in the bond book itself, while sometimes there was a separate book for recording the minister's returns. In Wayne County we have lost all our bond books before 1857 and the minister's return record before 1857. We still have some of the bond books before 1898, but a few are missing. We do have all our minister's return books. from 1857 to the present.
County Court minutes. The first legal records in a county in Tennessee will generally be the deeds and the county court minutes. The county court set up the county and the first court was appointed by the Governor. This court consisted of justices representing various districts within the county, before 1836 they represented the militia districts; while after 1836 they were elected by Civil District. The county Court minutes record everything (supposedly) the court did in any given term. Here you will find the appointment of guardian to minors and those insane, appointment of administrators of estates and the presentation of wills for probate, the presentation of deeds for probate, (pre-1836), the records of petitions brought to sell estate lands and slaves and to divide land where the heirs could not agree on the division. The election of county officers, road overseer appointments, appointments to various committees and applications for admission to the poor farm. The county court generally oversaw all the legal operations of the county, outside of criminal cases. In some cases you will also find in the county court records, the docket and record books of the various justices who made up the court. These JP records were the records of the legal proceedings handled by the JP in his district and if they survive, provide a more detailed insight into the every day life of the people. Here you will find the first records on murder cases, insanity proceedings, bastardy cases, and various misdemeanors and felonies. All of these cases could be brought before the JP and he could rule on them, either turning the case over the Grand Jury or adjudicating the case in his own home. Regretfully most of the JP record books were never turned into the court or have been lost.
Wills, Inventories, Administrations and Settlements: These records were originally the jurisdiction of the County Court Clerk. Here will be recorded the administrator's appointments and executor's bonds, the inventories of the personal estate of the decedent and the report of the sale of those personal properties, and in later books the actual settlement of the administrator or executor with the heirs. This settlement with the heirs did not become a part of the administrator's record until the 1890's. Prior to that time the settlements were either not recorded, or were recorded in another book.
Guardianship records: Here you will find the appointment of guardians of minor heirs of estates and their records of such guardianship. Sometimes the minors are named along with their deceased parent or grandparent, sometimes only the parent is named, while other times only the heirs are named. These books tend to be missing from many courthouses due to negligence.
Cash Journals and Cash Dockets. For twenty years I never looked at these books. But when I finally did, I realized what I had missed. In the Cash Journals are recorded the receipts and disbursements made by the Clerk. Most of these receipts and disbursements in the books for Wayne County relate specifically to the settlement of estates. Here was recorded the amounts received from the administrator/executor and the amounts paid to the named heirs, attorney's fees if any and court costs. Not all counties have these records in the Clerk's office. You may need to do a little searching and ask some questions to find them. They generally are stored in basement or attic storerooms or in broom closets.
Now let's leave the County Clerk's office and address the Clerk and Masters office. The Clerk and Master is an appointed official of the Chancery Court, he or she is not elected by the people, although the Chancellor is. The Chancery Court is the Equity court in Tennessee designed to adjudicate those cases where the exact letter of the law is not clear. The Chancellor has a wide range of power in ruling on chancery cases. In the early years of the state the Chancery districts were widely scattered and there was not a separate clerk in each county.
The earliest Chancery court was established in Washington County in the 1770's and remained the only such court until Davidson County was established. Cases which would normally have been filed in Chancery court, would often be filed in either county court or circuit court when the Chancery court was not located in the specific county. Or if a case were filed in Chancery, it may have been filed in another county. For Wayne County before 1840, bills in chancery could be filed in Charlotte, Dickson County, Jackson, Madison Co., or in Columbia, Maury County. In 1840 a Chancery Court was established in Lawrenceburg and in Savannah and Wayne County cases could be filed there or in any other chancery court in the state. It was not until 1848 that a chancery court was established in Wayne Co.
In the Clerk and Master's office you will find the minute books which record the original bill presented in the case, along with all rulings relating to that case. Not all documents in a specific case will be recorded in the minute books however. Only the Original bill and any amendments to the bill and all rulings will be recorded. Testimony given in a specific case will not be recorded, but will be found in the case file if it survives. There are also the docket books. One set of docket books records the scheduling of the case, expenses of the case and the witnesses called. The Execution Docket book will record the deposition of the moneys in the case, to whom paid and their written receipt. In most cases the actual signatures are part of the execution docket book. When a Chancery bill involves an estate, the execution docket book can provide a wealth of information on the heirs and where they were living at the time of the settlement of the bill. If the loose records files survive, testimony in the case will be available. This can prove to be enlightening to the researching because dates will be mentioned as well as relationships to other family members and people in the community. It is possible to find whole three and four generation genealogies in these loose papers. In many counties the Clerk and Master now has jurisdiction over the Wills, Settlements and Inventories records as well as probate. It will be necessary on visiting the county where your ancestor lived, to determine where the records are kept. Some counties have not transferred to older records from the County Court Clerk office to the Clerk and Master, while others have.
After 1854 the Chancery Court also handled all divorce cases in the state of Tennessee. Prior to 1854 only the state legislature could grant a divorce. These pre-1854 divorces have all been published. In many counties the loose records have been microfilmed and catalogued. Some counties still retain these records in the courthouse while others have established special archives for all records prior to 1900.
The Circuit Court was the second court established in a county. Generally the Circuit court was established by the first meeting of the county court under appointment from the governor of the state. The Circuit Court is a criminal court and as such hears all cases involving criminal law. But don't ignore the circuit court minute books simply because the court is a criminal court. In some cases, the circuit court as a legal court of record, also recorded applications for pension and bounty land benefits, and in some cases following the civil war, they also recorded lawsuits brought involving estates, and in some cases, divorce proceedings where criminal law was involved. While it may not be very edifying to read that an ancestor was arrested and charged with tipping or larceny, it may be the only record of that ancestor in the country. No stone should be left unturned nor a record book page be left unread in the quest for our ancestors.
Criminal cases can sometimes lead to information on the disappearance of an ancestor. Many times, people charged or about to be charged with a crime would simply "go to Texas" to avoid prosecution. And records of conviction can lead to other sources of information such as prison and convict records.
In addition to the minute books in Circuit Court, there are also docket books which show when a case was brought before the court, lists the names of people called as witnesses and the disposition of the case. There is generally a case number assigned in the docket book which will allow you to find the case papers if they still exist. The case papers can prove to be enlightening because transcripts of testimony will be filed therein. Regretfully, most loose circuit court records in many counties have been lost in time.
Many times an individual will be in a county only for a year or two, and then move on to greener pastures. If that individual didn't own any land in the county during his stay, there will probably not be any record of him in the registrar's office, unless he witnessed a deed, but there will be a record of him in the Trustee's office.
The Trustee today is the officer of the court charged with collecting the public taxes and in maintaining the tax books, although in the past the County Court Clerk maintained the tax books and the sheriff was charged with collecting the taxes. These records are generally the worst maintained of all county records since they are periodically retired to basements, attic and broom closets. But they are a valuable source of information. They will tell you if the individual owned land since he paid property tax, whether or not he was eligible to vote, since he would have to pay the poll tax, and may give some insight into his everyday existence if he paid taxes on cows, horses, machinery, carriages, and slaves. Tax records will also tell in some instances when an individual left the county or will indicate an approximate date of death.
Having looked at the major offices of the Courthouse, let's turn our attention to some less known office records. Prior to 1866 the schools in Tennessee were governed by the county court and were less than adequate. Few records except in the county court minutes survive from the pre-civil war period. But after the war, when the new state constitution was written and passed, a superintendent of education for each county was appointed by the county court and a school commission was also appointed to govern the schools in a county. The minutes of this commission, if available, coupled with the superintendent's annual reports can provide some information not found elsewhere in the courthouse. Again, many of the these records have been lost over time. Among the school records are the commission minutes, the school census records which recorded all children under the age or 18, and in some cases actual attendance records with the names of each student. Of all the school records, the school census records are the most important since they were done for years other than the decennial census years. I do not have a record of when the school censuses were taken, because those for Wayne County before the 1930's have been lost.
Some counties may also have the Poor Farm Commission and Poor Farm records. These can be especially valuable to those whose ancestors for whatever reason, petitioned the court for admission to the poor farm, were accepted and lived and died there. These records would normally be found in the County Court Clerk office if they still exist. In most counties, these records do not survive.
In closing, let me remind you that Tennessee has a "sunshine law" which makes all government meetings and their records free and open to the public. Only those records, such as adoption records, certain insanity proceedings and grand jury records are closed and certain records as specified by the court. That means that all records, other than as stated above, are public records and are open to the general public. However, please remember that these records are for everyone's use. Over the last eighty to ninety years, many records have disappeared from courthouse storage areas and files because people wanted to have a copy of grandpa's handwriting.
Also remember that most county officials are there to serve the public, but their concerns are with their current constituents. Most are not interested in History or Genealogy. While they will go out of their way to help where they can, they cannot do lengthy researches. State law does require all inquiries to a public official about the records in his office to be answered within a certain number of days. If you do write to a clerk and do not hear from him or her, write again and refer to the former letter.
And finally, one last reminder. Most counties in Tennessee will no longer copy from the original record books. While Wayne County continues to make copies from the original records, Hardin County will not. Nor will Davidson County. The older books are deteriorating and in an age of budget constrains, there isn't enough money in the average county budget to rebind them. Since the majority of the record books have been microfilmed, most counties will refer you either to the State Archives to obtain a copy or the local county library which has on deposit all the microfilmed records of the county.
By Edgar D. Byler, III, 201 First Ave. N., Collinwood, TN 38450
