Hamilton County, Ohio, Historic Courts
Insolvency and Divorce Court 1909 to 1914
In May 1894, the state legislature made provision for a court of record in Hamilton County styled “the Court of Insolvency.” The court was to have jurisdiction to cases under laws “regulating the mode of administering assignments in trust for the benefit of creditors.” Insolvency Court was created to relieve the Probate Court of its ever-increasing case load. This new court of record consisted of a single judge elected to a five-year term.
In 1909, the Insolvency Court was given concurrent jurisdiction with the Court of Common Pleas in divorce and alimony cases. Divorce cases ended on December 31st, 1914. The Insolvency Court was ultimately abolished by the state legislature in 1921 and any cases pending in the Insolvency Court were transferred to the Court of Common Pleas which was given the power to hear and adjudicate them. Note: The court continued to operate until the expiration of the term of office of the incumbents, the last case being # 9537 filed November. 22, 1922.
The Index entries are by litigants’ surname, first name, Case No., Docket Book No., and Page No. (See image below)
John H. Kelly was assigned case # 1612, recorded in Docket Book 7, on page 122
The Divorce case numbers were assigned in sequential order, from # 281 on June 18th, 1909 to #8640 on December. 31st, 1914. The indexes were created for specific time periods.
Index 1 for cases filed on June 18, 1909 through September 8, 1911
Index 2 for cases filed on September 9, 1911 through November 28, 1913
Index 3 for cases filed on November 28, 1913 through December 31, 1914
If you don’t have a filing date for the divorce, you will need to look for the person in all three indexes.
After finding your case number located within the name indexes, to obtain any additional documents that may exist as to this case, please send an email to Jason Alexander at JAlexand@cms.hamilton-co.org stating the case number, the person’s name, the docket book number, and page number, stating that it is from an “Insolvency Court” case and that you are seeking any additional documents that we may have on file regarding this case.
Divorce Dockets indexes: Surnames A to Z, within the surnames, first names beginning with A to Z;
Index 1: June 1909 to Sep.1911, surnames: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z
Index 2: Sep. 1911 to Nov. 1913, surnames: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z
Index 3: Nov. 1913 to Dec. 1914, surnames: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z
Sources: Inventory of the County Archives of Ohio 31 Hamilton County (Cincinnati), WPA, CD 3447.A1 H55 1937 no.31