How often do you ask the clerk to look for you again for a document? I have lost count of the number of times a clerk or someone could not find a record in a courthouse or other facility only to have someone find it several years later.
There are things that are lost or were never recorded. But if it’s been a while since you looked or had someone look, it might be time to have another person to look for the item.
Especially if there is new clerk or office staff.
One response
You are right. Back in the late 1970s I paid for a marriage record of my gr-grandparents. The State vital records office did not find it but kept my money, of course. I had given them both names and the date and place. Years later, by which time the cost had gone from $2 (!!) to about $15, I looked at a microfilm of the early marriages and found it! The bride’s name had been indexed as Black; it was actually Blank. I sent a photocopy of my original letter and their reply (yes, always keep those) with the record number which I now had, saying as I had already paid for the search, please send me the record, which they did. In those days I had a small genealogy budget. Little did I suspect how much of a bargain that record would be.