California Court Records


California Court Records

Major California courts that kept records of genealogical value were as follows:

    The Supreme court is a statewide appellate court.

    The Court of appeals is a statewide intermediate appellate court.

    Superior courts have countywide jurisdiction over civil and criminal cases including probate and juvenile cases, and appeals from citywide justice and municipal courts. The superior courts replaced the district courts.
Original court records are located at the various county or city courthouses. You can also find records and indexes at the California State Archives. California's earliest probate records were kept by the probate courts in each county. Since 1879 the superior court in each county has held the jurisdiction over probate matters. The county clerk is usually the custodian of these records. You can obtain copies of the original records (such as wills and estate files) by writing to the county clerk.

Check out the following website to read about and share experiences from courthouse research.
http://www.bcpl.net/%7Edmg/courthouse.htm#California
"The Goodman Clearinghouse:
Experiences In Researching in Court Houses"



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