Katrina, director archivist of the City of South Bend Archives and Records Center, outlined how to find divorce records for St. Joseph County, Indiana, and when to contact the clerk's office for older files.

She said researchers should start by deciding who they're looking for, the likely time frame and what information they need'for example, just the divorce decree (the court order dissolving the marriage), the docket showing court appearances, or the full court file. "When you start researching, there are questions that you need to ask yourself," she said.

Katrina recommended compiling a list of couples and approximate dates to narrow searches in the county indexes. Archives staff will search the index using the year provided and two additional indexes if needed. She advised using the county's online divorce index (the recording refers to the county indexing site) to find basic record details before submitting a request to the archives.

The archives can provide copies through an online request form or you may contact the St. Joseph County clerk's office directly. "If you need a copy of your divorce decree, you may either contact the clerk's office or request from the archives using our online request form," she said. She added that if a divorce took place before 1990, requesters should consider contacting the clerk's office because the archives' searchable dockets only extend to 1990.

Katrina described the archives' holdings and date ranges: order books date back to 1832 and the archives maintains order books through 1997 for county courts including the circuit court, probate court, superior court and Mishawaka superior court. The indexes for South Bend run from 1832 to 1982 and Mishawaka indexes run from September 1980 through 1992. She also cautioned that the county online index reaches into the mid-1990s but that entries for 1991'1995 on that index are for dismissed files only.

She walked viewers through using the online index: from the county site, click "Maps and databases" and scroll to the divorce record index; search by the couple's last name, then the first name, and click "view" to see the record detail. The judgment date in the index shows when a divorce was finalized or dismissed. "The file is the same as the cause number and the letter in the field represents which court heard the cases," she explained, adding that the letter codes are C for circuit, D for superior and M for Mishawaka.

For additional genealogical information such as the original complaint or reasons stated in early files, Katrina said requesters should ask for the court file; some older complaints include more detail than recent filings. She recommended using the Bowman index system to determine the page to start a manual search in the paper indexes.

The archives can continue searching order books for decrees and property settlements if the initial index search does not locate the needed information. Katrina closed by thanking viewers for watching the presentation and encouraging them to use the archives or clerk's office depending on the date and type of record sought.

The archives did not announce any policy changes or votes during the presentation; it was an instructional briefing on how to locate and request divorce records.