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...
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...
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,...
Have you heard of the term “nuncupative will” and wondered what one would look like? If you have never come across this term, here’s your chance to learn something new. Our research often throws us curves in the form of new types of documents. If we’re going to become excellent...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Are you a bit intimidated by probate research?  Have you located a will but neglected to find the “rest of the story?”  With probate records being digitized by Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org, chances are you have some exciting discoveries to be made. Did you know that the Probate Estate packet of your...
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