Then What? Part Five Searching the Utah Territorial Case Files of the U.S. District Courts, 1870-1896

 When researching an ancestor is it usually best to search all the records available for the time period you are looking for whether you think they are in them or not. Court Records are a valuable source. There are many jurisdictions of courts, such as, federal, state, regional, county, town, Territorial, Ecclesiastical, etc. This post is particularly about the Utah Territorial Case Files from the U.S. District Courts, 1870-1896.

Utah is fortunate to have this index online. The district court original records are at the National Archives Branch that hold the records for a particular state. The National Archives Rocky Mountain Region located in Denver Colorado hold the records for the following states: Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming. To research a state other than Utah one must go in person or hire a researcher.

For more information on Utah history, polygamy, etc. visit FamilySearch wiki and type in the subject.

Case Study Researching the Utah, Territorial Case Files of the U.S. District Courts, 1870-1896

From Then What? Part Five it was discovered in a biography that Joseph Howell Evans was arrested in Utah for polygamy. It is important to always find the original records. To get to an index to this particular collection of court cases there five steps:

Step 1)  go the the FamilySearch website.
Step 2) Click on the "Search" option.
Step 3) Scroll down the page and click on "United States"
Step 4) Choose "Utah" for the place.
Step 5) Scroll down the page to the "Utah, Territorial Case Files of the U.S. District Courts, 1870-1896".

Or skip all steps and just click on the link in Step 5.

The following screen will appear and the name Joseph Howell Evans is entered.
 
 

The results page shows 47 results for a Joseph H. Evans. It is important to know that this is really just one case. Each page is listed separately. However, a 47 page court document is going to be rich with details.

By picking any one of the entries the following screen will display. On the side near the bottom is shown that the original image is viewable at fold3.com by clicking the Visit Partner Site button. Don't have a fold.3.com
subscription? The below thought box tells you how to get the case file for free.

 Knowing when a court case like this happened leads to other records. Newspapers, for example, carried court information. Reporters published articles giving details about the case. Finding newspaper articles for Utah will be covered in Then What? Part Six.