Hello Paul and Everyone,

Regarding migration/non-migration of court records, while as a rule the court
records are found in the courthouse for the county at the time the event took
place, even if superseded by later county formations they don't move to a new
courthouse.

However, I had an experience where the probate records/heirs' quitclaim deeds
of my 4g grandfather James Williams who died in 1842 were found in Moniteau
Co. Missouri, which was formed from Cole Co 1844-5.  They are not in Cole Co.
courthouse even though all the documents say Cole Co.  The Cole Court Order
books note the administration/inventory/sale etc. for the estate, but all the
loose estate records, the actual inventory, etc. are in Moniteau courthouse.
These include the actual Administrator's bond with the listing of the heirs,
and the later quitclaim deeds from nine of the children to a tenth for a
piece of their father's property.

I have told Paul about this in the past and he thought this was
unusual/irregular.  Be that as it may, that's what happened.  I speculate
that the lawyer/family held on to the quitclaims until the youngest child
reached 21 (his does read Moniteau Co.) and they filed the whole ball of wax,
settled the estate finally at that time, and finally turned the actual estate
and financial tidbits in.   This late filing of estate records is not unusual
of course.

I just note this for some of you who might be looking in the generally
accepted "correct" place, which in my example would be Cole Co. Missouri, and
come up empty handed.    The above was quite a find for me, because James
Williams moved from the very burned Cocke Co. TN about 1836/7.

Best Regards,
Janet (Baugh) Hunter

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