{"id":3430,"date":"2015-04-21T23:46:14","date_gmt":"2015-04-21T23:46:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/raogk.org\/?page_id=3430"},"modified":"2019-05-03T11:03:57","modified_gmt":"2019-05-03T11:03:57","slug":"vermont","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/raogk.org\/court-records\/vermont\/","title":{"rendered":"Vermont Court Records – A Guide to Courthouse Research"},"content":{"rendered":"
\u2022 VT Court Records<\/a>\u00a0 \u2022 VT Probate Records<\/a>\u00a0 \u2022 \u00a0VT Land Records<\/a>\u00a0 \u2022 \u00a0VT Tax Records<\/a>\u00a0 \u2022
\nVT Immigration and Naturalization Records<\/a>\u00a0 \u2022 VT County and City Government Links<\/a>\u00a0 \u2022<\/div>\n<\/div>
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Vermont Government records cover a broad range of genealogy subject areas that can help you as part of your research, such as land ownership, courts, taxes, and naturalization’s. Given that Vermont court records cover such a wide selection of topics, they could aid you in many different ways. As an example, they could aid you in finding ancestors’ residences, identify occupations, locate financial information, determine citizenship status, or shed light on relationships between individuals. The whole thing relies upon on the type of court records that the ancestors” names show up in. For Definitions of all court terms see the Genealogy Encyclopedia<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Vermont Courthouse records change extensively from county to county in both level of quality and volume. You will find different kinds of court records that are most likely to possess information related for your genealogical research below.
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Vermont Court Records<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Vermont’s counties were mainly only created for the purpose of putting a county court system into place. The county courts had many roles, including handling divorces, civil and criminal court cases, taxes, deed recording, and naturalizations.<\/p>\n

It’s important to consult records for New Hampshire and New York up until 1791. Both of those states had jurisdiction over some Vermont lands until 1777, when Vermont gained its independence. Even from that point until 1791 there were several disputes over land jurisdiction.<\/p>\n

When Vermont gained independence in 1777, each county was given one county court. That court handled criminal and civil cases. All appeals went to the state supreme court. District courts came into being in 1967 and covered certain territories within each county. Although district courts handle mainly criminal cases, they can also handle civil disputes. County courts still exist, but they were renamed to superior courts in 1974. They were then given jurisdiction over all county court matters that the district courts were not presiding over. In 1990 the state-wide family court took over all family matters, including child custody and divorce. It’s county divisions handle all family court cases.<\/p>\n

Court Records for Chittenden, Windsor and Bennington counties prior to 1825 are now available on microfilm at the Vermont Public Records Division. There is a typed index of those cases organized alphabetically according to plaintiff name. The records for Washington and Addison counties are also available, but have not been indexed. Each county’s court offices has the original records, which include debt-related litigation, on file. See Also Research In Court Records<\/a>.<\/p>\n