Information Contained in Probate Records

Probate records are kept by probate courts. They contain information about wills and inheritances, and information about court decisions if a person died without a will. Property, belongings, and assets are passed on after death to surviving family members or friends, and you can trace the history of these things by looking at the probate records. You will also find details on who was the executor or administrator of the estate. Whether the person died with or without a will, there is a docket number connected with the court case.

Most people are searching probate records to find out family history and genealogies. Such amateur historians will often uncover interesting information and must become detectives in their searches of vital records and court documents. Over time, records may have been separated from their original files, or may have been destroyed. The amateur historian will search several avenues before giving up.

Finding Probate Records

All probate courts are under state jurisdictions, and most probate records are kept by the county government offices in those states. If you are searching for records which may have been recorded before the state joined the United States it may be more difficult to find information. These types of records may be in the care of state historical societies or the state government. In most cases, records are connected with the county of residence, even if they were made before the county existed on the map.

These court records will usually be found in the county courthouse of the county where the person was last living. The county courthouse may have moved some or all of the records to more secure locations to prevent damage, but the local government will be able to direct you to their location and tell you how to search through the documents.

Some counties in the United States have put records online so you can search them electronically. These will probably not be complete but are instead an index of probate court records which may be obtained from the county. For instance, the Illinois State Archives, sponsored by the Illinois government, has a historical probate index for most counties in Illinois. For Livingston County, you would visit http://www.cyberdriveillinois.com/departments/archives/http://www.peoplepublicrecords.org/pontiac.html and perform a search or learn more about electronic archives. Information on other counties is available as well.

The State of Maryland has excellent indexes for archived vital records. You may access the portal by visiting http://www.msa.md.gov/msa/refserv/http://www.peoplepublicrecords.org/genealogy/html/http://www.peoplepublicrecords.org/probate.html. Here you will find several indexes organized by estate docket, inventories, wills, accounts of sale, and so on. Most historical probate records are on microfilm or microfiche as well, so the original documents are well preserved. If you are searching for Maryland vital records you may still need to visit the county courthouse. but it is easier to narrow search parameters through the online indexes.

Before Searching for Probate Records

There are millions of probate records and probably hundreds with the name you might be searching for. To make the search easier, gather the following information before you call the county courthouse where the records might be held.

•    The address of where the person was living at the time of death, and other addresses connected with the person or the person’s property
•    The name of the county; depending on how historical the records are, the county boundaries may have changed over time.
•    Do an online search for the records to see if there is an electronic probate index. In the above example for Livingston County, Illinois, for instance, you would type “Livingston County Illinois probate records” into the search engine. There will be several hits for sites which require fees to search, but look for government sponsored or non-profit sites instead.
•    In the index you will find a docket number connected with the person’s name; look for relatives' names as well.
•    If you are making an on-site visit to the courthouse, ask the clerk to retrieve the records for you and copy them. If you have performed an online probate index search, call or email the clerk and make sure to give them complete information so they can find the records. Copying fees may apply, so ask how much it will cost.

You may also want to contact the local library or historical society in the county where the person lived. Historical societies have information about deaths, burials, and probate on their sites as well.

Information You Might Find in Probate Records

Probate records may be very simple or they may contain many pages of information. You should be able to see the will and all amendments to it, find out who was the executor or administrator, see a list of heirs and a list of property, and learn about any disagreements among the parties. For very old records you may only find a letter in the probate record file. For cases where the heirs disagreed about how the estate would be divided there might be many pages of petitions and court documents.

Occasionally, probate records are missing for some reason (usually because they were destroyed in a fire or flood). If this is the case, you may be able to search elsewhere for information about the person, so ask the county courthouse clerk or local historical society if there are other places where information might be held.

Other Information You Should Know about Probate Records

Historically, there were many restrictions on women owning property in the United States. That is why most probate records are for men such as husbands and sons. You may be searching for records about a woman, however, and should know that probate records for women are sometimes listed under “Mrs. John Smith” rather than “Amelia Smith.”

In these cases, if the probate index is alphabetized, you may find Amelia’s information either under “M” for Mrs. John Smith, under “J” for John Smith, Mrs., or under “S” for Smith, Mrs. John. Each county alphabetizes its records differently. You may find indexes put together by community service projects or the WPA project such as those for Texas counties found on http://three-legged-willie.org/texas.htm. In these indexes, the focus was upon gathering information and presenting it electronically, so if you need official documents you may still want to search the records through the courthouse.

In very early probate records you might find information about adoptions or guardianship of minors, or divorce records. These cases are handled by separate courts now, but historical probate records may have this information in the files. In these instances, there may be interesting overlaps between documents which will tell you about the lives of the people involved.