In this episode of Research Like a Pro Genealogy podcast, Diana and Nicole continue their series on researching in England without parish records. They are joined by Jessica Morgan. Jessica is a genealogist specializing in British family research. The hosts and Jessica discuss using probate records to find family members, focusing on the differences between pre- and post-1858 records. They explain the court hierarchy in England and how to determine which court would have handled...
Our five-part blog series continues by examining another record type to consider when baptisms, marriages, and burial records can’t be discovered for our ancestors. In part one we looked at the parish chest, in part two, tax records, and this blog post will focus on wills and probate. Wills & Probate Another resource beyond the parish is probate records. Wills are incredibly useful in that they often name the surviving family members (i.e., heirs) of...
Today’s episode of Research Like a Pro is a discussion with Alice Childs about finding probate and church records for Pennsylvania German ancestors. We discuss the probate process and the resulting records. We also talk about using FamilySearch to browse to probate books at the county level. Pennsylvania was known as a place for religious tolerance, and many Germans of different denominations settled in the same places. We talk about how to find out what...
Historically, since the first permanent settlement, there has never been a time in North America when people did not make wills or when the estates of those who failed to do so were not handled by a court appointed for that purpose to ensure that the rightful heirs–the legal heirs–became the heirs in fact.2 The Value of Probate Records We have established that land was very important to our Pennsylvania German ancestors and we learned...
In our podcast episode today, Diana and I discuss three case studies about probate records. In our last episode, we talked all about how to find probate records and what are in them. This episode is about how to probate files to answer a research question. It’s amazing how many clues are hiding in these records! We discuss three projects – Diana’s research about Thomas B. Royston, Nicole’s client project about John Johnson, and Diana’s...
In our podcast episode today, Diana and I discuss one of our favorite record types for proving identity and parentage: probate records. These records are key in identifying relationships between children and their fathers in 18-19th century United States research. Probate records include wills, inventories, sales slips, receipts, debt payments, summons, petitions, and all kinds of records that reveal information about a family. Don’t miss the important information about how to find probate records for...
Have you wondered what is behind the scenes at an archive? Any idea what work goes into preserving the records that we use for our genealogy research? I recently presented a class on using probate records at the Family History Workshop sponsored by the Utah Division of Archives and Records Service and was treated to a tour of the archived records. My guide opened an innocuous door and when I entered the archive I was...
What value is there in transcribing and viewing an entire probate case file? If it is lengthy, you might be tempted to skip this task, but you’d be making a big mistake. To solve brick wall genealogy problems, we need to examine every possible clue. I’ve been working on a fascinating project for our Research Like a Pro study group and it all hinges on probate. In Part 1 of this series I discussed what...
Have you discovered a will for your ancestor but are puzzled by the legal terminology? You might have extracted some information like names of sons or daughters but aren’t sure what to do with the rest. Back to the Basics with Probate Records – Part 1 discussed what information might be in a probate record and how to locate the records for your ancestors. Now it’s time to learn about the document that is often first...
Have you explored probate records in the search for your family? Or do they sound too difficult to tackle? With the digitization of microfilm on FamilySearch and indexes available on Ancestry, probate records are much easier to access than in the past. With an estimated 25% of the United States population leaving a will and an estimated 50% mentioned in a will, why wouldn’t you check out these valuable records? When should you turn to probate records?...
