Court Records: History in the Making, Knowledge for the Taking

IT H A S only been of recent date that organizations such as the Historical Society of the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey and the Historical Society of the Third Circuit have come into being, in order to fill a void in sore need of being filled. This void may have occurred because, for reasons still unfathomed, historians by and large have traditionally ignored court records as a source of historical research. It may be that they have done so because, not having been trained primarily in the law, historians have not been attracted to, or may be unaware of, the rich historical lore that is buried in judicial records. O r , it may be because a basic lack of familiarity with the legal discipline has led historians to discount the historical value of materials found in these records. By doing so, they may very well have forfeited an understanding of those events which preceded, and then succeeded, a particular case decision—events that may have had an influence on the future directions that our society has taken. More likely, in my judgment, the failure to study and analyze court records from an historical perspective, stems from a combination of these factors, as well as others, to which I have not adverted. Whatever the reason, however, even a hurried and abbreviated journey through early court dockets reveals to us now that the problems facing us today have had in many instances their genesis in years past, and that the events g iv ing rise to those problems may, when examined and understood, possibly provide assistance in solving the 20th Century concerns presently confronting us. Indeed, it should come as no surprise to us that