I bought a 61 Plymouth Valiant 2 door coupe from a guy in Youngstown, Ohio in 2002. He bought the car from a person in Phoenix in 2001. I still have a copy of the Arizona Certificate of Title.

Is there a way I can find ownnership prior to 2001 or location of the car. I am sure the owner from Phoenix was not the original owner.

I have since restored the car and would like to show previous owners the story of restoration, etc.

Thanks

Highly unlikely. Almost no states keep records and if they did it wound not be allowed to share them with you.

This is kind of correct... Arizona in some ways is similar to Oregon, they used to keep
older records on microfiche. Unfortunately like Oregon, a divorced DMV clerk looked up
her ex husband's new address and put him 6 feet under... (I had this happen in Oregon
and had a supervisor's attention after an ex girlfriend did the same thing to me, but didn't
shoot me, just showed up and vandalized my new digs...she got fired immediately, FYI)....
With HIPAA and ID theft, it's hard to make any headway in getting old vehicle records.

Oddly enough there are way to get some info about previous owners if you are very creative...
back in the late 90's to figure out where my father's Feather Duster has gone... I attempted
to get a custom license plate with the exact numbers of his plate...this resulted in DMV calling me
and telling me that I could not use that letter and number combination as the plate hadn't been
turned in... they confirmed that the plate had been current in Oregon 2 years previous but hadn't
been renewed, they assume it either got crushed without the plate being turned in, or it went
out of state... so that narrowed things down there, that being said I had to pick a different plate
for my duster...but it was worth the delay for the bureaucratic run around to see what might
of happened to that car...

Good Luck in your search, the other option is a buddy in the police department that can run
a search on the VIN and license plate and say it's a practice exercise in his off time, or a PI
is the last resort and will cost $$$...

Thank you for your reply.

I understand the privicy issues. Even if I could find out locations of the car during its life in the USA.

I know this much - car is now in Australia, I imported it about 15 years ago and still own it. I bought it from a guy in Youngstown, Ohio and I know he bought it from a person In Phoenix.

Prior to Phoenix I think it was in Utah, Canada, and LA (but not 100% sure).

I would like to write a story for the person I sell the car to, when the time comes.

Cheers