Corvette Title Search?

[Bob B.]

Hi all,

I have a certificate of title for my 1960 Corvette dated January 30, 1980. When I bought the car in 2003, I thought it would be a piece of cake to trace back the titles to the original owner. After all, the 1980 title gave the previous title number. What more could I want? So, armed with this information, I called the Indiana DMV only to hear, "We're sorry, sir, we discard all records over ten years old." I couldn't believe that a state like Indiana could be so irresponsible as to get rid of such valuable information, but yet another DMV certainly lived up to the well-deserved reputation of DMVs!

All I know is that the car was purchased in 1980 from an estate sale in Goshen, Indiana. Does anyone have any recommendations as to where I might go from here to find that missing 20 years?

Thanks,

Bob

[Mike M.]

Re: Corvette Title Search?

goshen ind is the home of the previous ncrs treasurer, john brookmeyer. get his phone # from a pre-90 NCRS Restorer, page 3.mike

[Terry M.]

Re: Corvette Title Search?

Also the home of one of the founders Tom Essig.

[Chuck G.]

Re: Corvette Title Search?

Virtually all DMV's get rid of records after 10 years, but there's also another problem, and that's the "new" privacy laws that were enacted years ago.

Those laws make it virtually impossible to trace ownership through DMV's, as they won't release the information even if they have it.

Chuck

[James B.]

Re: Corvette Title Search?

Hi Bob,

I think you just found out why sites like the '59 Registry and C1 Registry were born. 8^]

Good luck in your searching!

Regards,

Jim Brady III
Webmaster
www.59registry.com

[Verle R.]

Re: Corvette Title Search?

Consider this like geneology research. Go to the local newspaper and research their files for estate sale notice and death notices that are tied together. Then try to contact people with the same last name in that area. With luck you can find someone who knows something about the car and owner.

Good luck,

Verle

[Terry F.]

Re: Corvette Title Search?

I think you have to find out the location and date the car was purchased. If you can determine an address and a date of purchase, you might be able to find the owner through a local area library archives. Just a thought. This would probably only work with private party. Terry