In November, 2006, 137 boxes full of Circuit Court cases from 1857 through 1945 were transferred from Midland County to the Historical Society Archives. This treasure-trove of genealogical information and community history is now being processed by a dedicated group of volunteers. At the end of the project, which is expected to take two years to complete, researchers will have unprecedented access to the information contained in the approximately 6500 court cases.

The wide-ranging types of court cases involved include immigration and naturalization cases, divorce cases, suits to recover damages due to injury or death in car accidents, suits to recovery property, cases appealed to the Michigan Supreme Court, contested wills, and criminal cases involving murder, rape,and burglary among others.

All of the case records are currently available to the public for research during the public hours of the Research Library. Although access will be much easier and faster once the project is completed, indices for many of the cases do exist. Researchers should have available name and date information to make the search for a particular case possible.

New volunteers are always welcome. The basic work includes opening and flattening case documents, arranging documents into archival storage material, recording information about each case, and entering that information into a computer program. Volunteers work Monday, Wednesday, or Friday afternoons. Call Kathy McCormick at extension 1305, or mccormickk@mcfta.org to volunteer or for more information.

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