I've done that for years in Tennessee - in the old days, you could get every piece of paperwork that was on file by running a title history through the DOT (or DMV in you case). They charged $5.00 (now $15.00 last time I did it), and would dig out the pages from microfiche files, overnight. The Federal Privacy Law (which I think is what your people are referencing), prohibits the sharing of names and addresses by governmental agencies, which shouldn't affect most of the paperwork : Tennessee didn't start redacting the names until later. One of the cars I used this routine on (not mine), provided a big stack of the dealer invoice, MSO, title history with all of the past owner's info on it, which I sent to the current owner of the car after I tracked him down through the CRG (car was a local car sold out of state, disappeared for a couple of years until CRG helped me find where it went). My '68 Z came back as a 1/2" tall stack of copies, 13 owners in all (one guy bought and sold it 2 or 3 times), with the oh-so-critical dealer invoice and MSO perfectly legible and intact. '69 Z was the same, just not as thick as I'm the 3rd owner from 1973 'till present.
This whole thing was easy to do - required a visit to the TN DOT office in Nashville with the title in hand, fill out the title history request form, pay the fee, and come back the next day and pick up the results. If the car was originally from Tennessee, they had everything on file as I mentioned, but if it was a transfer the paperwork started when it was titled in TN.
Might be worth a trip to your state office (likely where the files are stored) in person - always easy for people over the phone to turn you down when they aren't sure of what they are talking about. Our office stopped doing this for a while, stating they didn't have the manpower of the overtime capabilities, but I heard recently they have started it again. It is worth a try -
Regards,
Steve
