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For purposes of this research guide, we will use NRS 17.130 as our starting point, but will also use NRS 17.140 as an additional example. The first thing we should do is look at the history note for the statute, preferably from the NRS on the Legislature's website:
[1911 CPA § 329; RL § 5271; NCL § 8827] — (NRS A 1979, 830; 1981, 1858; 1987, 940)
We can see that this statute came into being in 1911 as part of the Civil Practice Act (CPA). More on this and the other 1911 Acts may be found here.
The 1911 Acts were unique in that they were exempted from publication in the Statutes of Nevada. These Acts first appeared in a print statutory compilation as part of the Revised Laws in 1912.
This statute in particular was incorporated into the 1912 Revised Laws as § 5271 although it was originally numbered as § 329 in the Civil Practice Act. When the Revised Laws were replaced by the 1929 Nevada Compiled Laws, the numbering changed to § 8827 (although it does not appear to have been amended until 1979, per the "A" in the portion of the statutory history contained in parentheses).
Be wary of performing statutory origin research on Westlaw as their statutory history notes omit citations to pre-NRS statutory compilations.
For example, this is the statutory history note for NRS 17.130 on Westlaw:
Added by CPA (1911), § 329. NRS amended by Laws 1979, p. 830; Laws 1981, p. 1858; Laws 1987, p. 940.
Here is the same statutory history note from the NRS on the Legislature's website (reproduced from above):
[1911 CPA § 329; RL § 5271; NCL § 8827] — (NRS A 1979, 830; 1981, 1858; 1987, 940)
The Westlaw history note omits the Revised Laws (RL) and Nevada Compiled Laws (NCL) citations, one or both of which are required to successfully trace the origin of a Nevada statute, as this guide illustrates.
The Lexis history note more closely resembles the NRS, but omits the brackets:
CPA 1911, § 329; RL 1912, § 5271; CL 1929, § 8827; 1979, p. 830; 1981, p. 1858; 1987, ch. 413, § 1, p. 940.