Civil Court Orders from around 1945

[garbfink]

Can anyone point me in the right direction.

I am trying to identify a specific individual and I have just found out that this same person was taken to court over the fact that he had fathered a child. This was done by the mother of the child. The man in question happened to be married to another lady and already had two children with his wife.

As I understand it the court upheld the plaintiff's decision and ordered the father to pay some kind of maintenance. this would have happened sometime after 1943. I'm assuming 1943 to 1948 would be the time frame.

Can anyone advise me if there is any way of being able to locate the court records for this case? I only know the plaintiff's name, I do have a name for the defendant but I'm not sure it is correct.

It is unlikely that the parties are still alive but in their interest, if they are I have not included any names etc. on this post. If you think that you may be able to help but need some more details then please do PM me.

Thanks in advance.

G.

[stanmapstone]

There are numerous reports of child maintenance court cases in the newspapers in that time frame. The one you are interested in may be mentioned.

Stan

[garbfink]

Yep, I've had a look at the papers available on find my past for the names and dates of the relevant individuals but no joy. Is there any better resource for archived papers that I can try?

Will the court documents from the case still be stored anywhere?

[Blue70]

You need to find out if the nearest local record office or archive to the court has any Affiliation Registers available to view for that date. If so it will likely be very basic information and probably won't go into detail about the case. The Affiliation Registers I looked at from 1934 contained the following information:-

Number of Case
Mother's Name
Name of Putative Father
Appearance or Non Appearance of Defendant
Admits or Denies
Date of Application
Date of Birth of Child
Sex
Result of Application


Blue

[garbfink]

Thanks for the help Blue. Some very useful information there.

I've spoken to the local court today and they asked me to put the request in writing which I have now done. So hopefully I may be able to get my hands on quite a bit of information. I'm going to try the local registry office this afternoon to see if they have any details as well.

I'll keep you posted.

All the best.

Simon.

[Blue70]

It will be a record office or archive not a registry as registry offices provide birth, marriage and death records not court records. Local court records concerning affiliation orders if they survive usually end up in record offices or archives run by local authorities. 


Blue

[garbfink]

Ahh. gotcha!

Thanks for the clarification. This is the first time I've really gone 'off piste' from the general records held on the genealogy websites.

I have now spoken to both the local court who says that they have archives and also the local record office who also say they have some information in archive so hopefully one of those will bear fruit.

Thank you for the pointers and keeping me on the straight an narrow.

[Blue70]

Record Offices or Archives usually have an online presence showing what they have. Access can be by appointment only for actual records or at any time if the records are available to view on microfiche. Here are examples for Liverpool and Manchester councils where they refer to this type of record:-

http://archive.liverpool.gov.uk/calmview/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=347+MAG&pos=6

http://www.manchester.gov.uk/info/448/archives_and_local_history/7382/court_records/5


Blue

[garbfink]

So I contacted the West Yorkshire Archive with regards to the above and I have received this response from them today.

Does anybody have any bright ideas of how I can proceed. The information that I really need is the defendant's

"Thank you for your email received by us on Monday 22nd May 2017. Please accept my apologies for the length of time it has taken us to respond. I consulted the office Archivist about the best way for us to proceed with your enquiry as it contains some fairly complex legal issues. Here at Wakefield we do hold a number of court collections including the records of Pontefract Borough Court (collection reference P25) and the Upper Osgoldcross Petty Sessions Court (P19).
 
The Data Protection Act states the commission of an offence by a named individual is sensitive personal data. The introduction of the Data Protection Act in 1998 reinforced an already existing 100 year closure period on many records held in archive repositories. As such, any records less than 100 years old which contain sensitive personal data cannot be released to a third party by the West Yorkshire Archive Service.
 
Third parties are able to apply for access to information contained in sensitive records that are less than 100 years old, however they need to be able to prove the individual is deceased (as the Data Protection Act only applies to the living), or that they have the permission of the individual to whom the record relates to (the Data Subject). If you are interested in researching this particular case then it will be necessary for you to provide this evidence. This would relate to anyone listed in the case. So, if you are able to provide proof of the death of XXXXXXXXXX XXXX and XXXXXX XXXX then we would be able to release the information relating to them to you. We would however have to redact the defendant’s name in that instance.
 
Clearly in this case, the primary aim of your research is to identify the name of the defendant, so it is unlikely you will have proof of death or his permission to access the record. It is a confusing and frustrating situation in which we are unable to release information until we obtain proof of death or permission, but you may be unable to supply that information as you are not able to obtain it. You do seem to have a possible name to search for so if you were able to provide evidence of XXXX XXXXX XXX's death then we could undertake a search for that name on your behalf. I do hope this information will prove useful to you. I have attached our Data Subject Access Request form to this email which we would require you to complete and return to us if you did wish to access any information held in exempt records.
 
I do hope this information will prove useful to you but if you have any further questions then please do not hesitate to contact us again."

Any ideas, aside from waiting another 26 years?