Researching Family History Through Probate Records

Researching Family History Through Probate Records

If you are beginning to research your family history, one good place to look for information is probate records.  The information found in probate records can be extremely valuable to genealogists or family historians

When family historians begin to look for information on family members who have been long dead, often they run across difficulties finding accurate information.  The names of people may have changed over time, and sometimes the name or location of the place may have changed or been moved.  For example, some parts of Lincoln County that were in Maine in the 18th century are now part of other counties in Maine, such as Hancock, Sagadahoc, Knox, or Waldo counties.  Outside of the United States, the country of Eritrea used to be part of the country of Ethiopia in Africa. 

When researchers need to find the exact location of a probate court, they can turn to Internet or the telephone in their preliminary research.  Either place, researchers can find the index of the probate records that they need for their research.  Usually, probate record indexes are stored in the archives of courthouses or on Internet websites set up by the courts themselves.  These indexes come in printed formats or as abstracts on microfilm and give the researcher lots of information, such as locations of property and phone numbers of interested parties.

Once a researcher has found and index, he will want to look up the deceased's last name and note the docket number and date of the probate case.  Usually, the date of the case and the date of death will be fairly close to each other.  Also, the researcher will look for the names of relatives of the deceased in the probate records. 

While the researcher is looking up all the information, he or she will probably come across lots of useful files and he or she should start to compile a list of files of possible interest that may be useful in the research.  If the researcher has to depend upon a county clerk or clerks for help retrieving the files in a courthouse, it may take some time because a lot of files could be very old or off-line.  In that instance, Internet research saves a considerable amount of time.  If the files are missing or very difficult to find, the researcher can always turn to probate record books, although historically, they do not contain as much information as the probate court record files.

The next step in the research process is for the researcher to study the files and take notes on the relevant details, which is the most important part of the research.  Today's technology can help with this work.  The researcher can use tools such as a PC scanner or a photocopier to help with compiling notes.  The original files must stay in the courthouse.  The last step when compiling research is to organize it by labeling the notes with the case number, address, telephone numbers, web site address, and original date of research, all information that needs to be quickly at hand.

There is a myriad of data that can be gleaned from probate records.  If you need to answer the question, "Who was Pete's great grandfather?" or "How long has the Anderson family owned that house?"  The information that the family researcher gets from probate records is convenient and reliable.