Michigan Department of Public Health also holds divorce records.

The Department of Public Health is required by Act 368 of 1978, to collect the statutory fee before a search may be made for any record. Checks and money orders are to be made payable to the STATE OF MICHIGAN.

Minimum fee for one certified copy is $13.00. Additional copes of the same record are $4.00 each. Additional years searched over 3 years are an additional $4.00 for each year searched over the 3 year search limit. FEES PAID TO SEARCH THE FILES ARE NOT REFUNDABLE, When a record is not found, the applicant will receive notification that the record requested is not on file in the office.

The Michigan Legislature, under authority of Act 9 of 1897, required all circuit court clerks to notify the Secretary of State of all petitions for divorce filed in their respective counties. These reports were to include the names and ages of the parties involved, names and ages of any children in the family, date and place of petition for divorce and county where the marriage took place. In 1923 (PA 27) the law was changed, directing the circuit court clerks to submit their reports to the Department or Public Health. The Archives do not list any registers specific to Ionia County.

The State Archives of Michigan hold copies of Ionia County Circuit Court records. A variety of records are available from 1839 - 1894. Ask for circular # 37 for the complete list of holdings.

If one of your ancestors was involved in a court case, you may also find the following types of records:

Case Files: A case file contains evidence, testimony, correspondence, depositions, and other documents relevant to the case. Finding a case file normally requires obtaining a case file number from the index, docket, or minutes of the case.

Dockets: After a judiciary agrees to hear a case, it is placed on the court docket until the time of the trial. Typically, an entry on the docket includes the plaintiff and defendant for each case, the date of the case's hearing, the case's file number, and the titles of all documents relevant to the case. Dockets are normally held in chronological order and are typically divided by category, such as criminal, civil, or equity.

Minutes: The minutes, compiled by the clerk of the court, briefly record all actions of the court on a single day. Particularly useful when indexes and dockets cannot be located, they usually list the plaintiff and defendant in the case and state the action taken. They are normally organized chronologically but are rarely indexed.

Orders: The recorded orders of the court can be found in almost every jurisdiction. They generally present a concise summary of the case and state the judgment to be carried out. It is worth noting that appointments of guardians, memorials, naturalizations, and re-recordings of deeds, especially before this century, are often recorded in the order books. In addition, a variety of other administrative data from the locality was also recorded frequently.

Portions of the above definitions are from the "How-To" section of Family Tree Maker version 4.4