Tracking origional owner

[khochstein]

Hi Guys,

I recently purchased a 1947 WL

I was wondering how do you track the history of owners and ultimately find out who the origonal owner was and where purchased.

where do you start?

what is the procedure?

Thanks for any advice

Kim

[Mr. Big]

Got any pics? Have a 47WL (well, have enough to call it that!) myself. No idea how to backtrack that kind of information.

[Rubone]

Kim,
Regretfully your request is a near impossibility. US motor vehicle law does not provide for a history of previous owners as part of a transfer, as opposed to various other nations who do. Unless you happen to personally know the previous owner and they know the next previous, etc, there is no way to track it. States do not share information on title transfers, only on stolen vehicles through NCIC. And Harley-Davidson does not have build records or dealer shipping information so it is a dead end on that side as well. I have been involved with vintage H-Ds for over 40 years, have owned many, collect all the information I can, and have never known where any of my bikes came from. Unless you buy from the original owner, your are SOL!
Robbie

[BigLakeBob]

Kim,
I tried to track a JD my great grandfather owned in PA and they could not show what vehicles he had owned. I did not have a serial # just his name, I knew the county he lived in and the time frame. The title office told me that if I had the serial # it could have been possibly traced. Good Luck! Bob

[pem]

Kim, try looking for your states DOT's records from 1947. Try your state historical society or the DOT. You may have to sift through a lot of records but you might get lucky.

Dick

[40 Nuck]

Each state has different retention and laws. I am in Florida, and at one time (about 1984) I was able to trace the ownership history of a recently purchased 1965 Corvette back to the original owner (I actually spoke to 12 of the 13 previousl owners). Florida, Kansas and Virginia each had pretty comprehensive records, and at the time retained them for a long time. If you are lucky, you may find that you can go back quite a few years (not likely back to the 40's), but maybe into the 60's, and get a name of the owner ... you never know ... maybe the original owner had it for a number of years, or got it from the original owner. I've got a ton of stories from that research including a broken marriage, speaking to an old woman (2nd owner) who drove the car from Pittsburgh, Kansas to Miami, FL, and the original owner who actually worked at the St. Louis assembly plant and sent me an original Poloroid of the car in his driveway in 1965. It won't hurt to try ... just contact the state where you purchased the bike and follow any trail you have.