My question involves a marriage in the state of:California (possibly Nevada)
My father recently passed away; I have no way to contact his ex-wife and I was told by the administrators of his pension plan that they would need a copy of his divorce decree as he had failed to update his beneficiary statement (it was still listed as him being married). I was told if I can provide proof that he was divorced that as his only heir I would be entitled to funds from his pension, but I have no idea when and where he was divorced. I tried the county where he lived but they didn't have record of the divorce being filed there. His ex wife usually floats back and forth between California and Nevada, sometimes on the CA side of Lake Tahoe, other times on the Nevada side, also Reno quite frequently. I am not able to physically go to all of the possible counties that may have records as I live in Illinois and would not be able to take the time off from work and school to go on what could possibly be a wild-goose chase.
I have tried online services (all of which have been scams, by the way) and have nothing to show for my efforts except new charges on my credit card; are there firms or individuals that are able to search these things out for me? I don't mind paying, I really need to find this information out ASAP and it would be worth it to me financially to hire a professional to handle this. Do paralegals do this sort of thing? Would someone with access to Lexis-Nexis (sp.?) be able to find out more information than I can?
Any help would be greatly appreciated, I'm really stuck here and have no idea which way to turn for my next move. Even if you could tell me what kind of company to look for in the phone book, that'd at least get me a start. Thanks in advance for your help!

