The searchable database to the divorce cases heard in Cass County District Court is now available on-line. Since the Cass County Civil Case files were deposited in 2001 at the Institute for Regional Studies, the archives staff has been pulling and processing all divorce proceeding files and then indexing them. The results of that work is now available as a searchable database on the Institute web site.

There are over 3,300 files in the collection and span from the first case heard in 1878 to 1942. Of particular note are the cases before July 1, 1899. With only a 90-day residency requirement and more liberal grounds for divorce than many eastern states, Fargo in the 1880s and 1890s became a center for persons unhappy in their marriage to obtain a relatively easy and quick divorce. Each case file includes all legal documents filed with the court, the divorce decree (if granted), and affidavits or testimony of the plaintiff and some times the defendant. Some files also include the evidence presented such as photographs, letters, and even artifacts. For some cases the divorce proceedings were stopped or denied, but all are still included in the collection and on-line database.

The divorce files are open for public use, and photocopies can be made of the files. Please consult the information page regarding the collection for the scope and content of the collection and the making of copies. The information page also links to the database search page.

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