General Resource Sites

• Analyzing an 1804 Inventory 
  This 1804 inventory lists the possessions of Thomas Springer of New Castle County, Delaware.
  • Digital scan of the original handwritten inventory 
  • Typed version of the inventory 
• Analyzing Wills for Useful Clues 
  From the Board for Certification of Genealogists - Skill Building - May 1995.
• Ancestors at Rest - Find Free Death Records 
  Coffin plates, funeral cards, death cards, wills, memorial cards, cemeteries, vital stats, obituaries, church records, family bibles, cenotaphs and tombstone inscriptions.
  • Wills 
• Ancestry.com - Learning Center - Learn More 
  Thousands of FREE, searchable how-to articles from Ancestry.com publications such as Ancestry Magazine, the Ancestry Weekly Discovery and the Ancestry Monthly Update.
  • Probate Records: An Underutilized Source 
    Article by Donn Devine, CG, CGI.
  • Probate Records, Part I  and Part II 
    Article by Donn Devine, CG, CGI.
  • The Probate Record Treasure Trove 
    Article by Marjorie Wagner.
  • Relationships in Probate Records 
    Article by George G. Morgan.
  • Striking Paydirt with Estate Papers 
    Article by George G. Morgan.
  • Where There's a Will, There's a Way 
    Article by George G. Morgan.
  • The Widow's Dower Interest 
    Article by Donn Devine, CG, CGI.
• Beyond the Index--Michael John Neill's Articles in the Ancestry Daily News 
  • 1856 Illinois Probate Manual 
    This article discusses an 1856 guide to the probate process in Illinois.
  • 1856 Illinois Probate Guide: The Dower 
  • A $31.44 Inheritance 
    This article explains how the author's grandmother inherited $31.44. Also included is a discussion of per stirpes and intestate probates.
  • Charlotte's Web on the Lake 
    This article discusses and analyzes records found in a Chariton County, Missouri probate from the early 1900s. Also included is a discussion of research procedures to use when conducting onsite research.
  • Fishing for Clues in John Lake's Estate 
  • The Oft-Married Sarah 
    This article is the first in a three part series analyzing a 1760s Orange County, Virginia will written by a widow. Dower, inheritance and other heirship issues are discussed.
  • Probate: An Introduction 
  • Probate: An Overview 
  • When there is No Probate 
    This article discusses some research methods that can be undertaken when an ancestor does not leave a probate, but the researcher reasonably believes the ancestor had property.
• Glossary of Legal Terms 
• Glossary of Unusual Words Found in Wills, Etc. 
• How to Read Probate Records 
  From DoHistory.
• Missing Heirs and Persons Locating Service - Harvey Morse, P.A. 
  Specialize in locating missing heirs to estates, unclaimed properties, insurance policies, trusts, stocks and bonds, etc.
• SAMPUBCO - Will Testator Indexes 
• SAMPUBCO - Guardianship Index 
• SAMPUBCO - Wills Index 
• WorldVitalRecords.com - Court, Land, and Probate 
  An inexpensive, growing set of pay-for-use databases. Including vital records, court records, military records, and an extensive collection of newspapers.

Locality Specific

• Abstracts from the Court of Probate Records for Annapolis County, Nova Scotia  ~ Canada
  We are indebted to Wayne W. Walker for making a copy of his Abstracts from the Court of Probate Records for Annapolis County, Nova Scotia available to us on the Internet. The Abstracts are available for download as a ZIP (compressed) file. The text is in ASCII text format which can be read by all word processors.
• Abstracts of Ellis County Wills  ~ Texas
• Adams County, Will Records 1903 - 1938  ~ Colorado
• Baltimore & Anne Arundel County Last Will and Testaments 
• Brassington Probate documents at the Joint Record Office, Lichfield 1535-1800  ~ Derbyshire, England
• Charleston, South Carolina Room by Room Inventories, 1787-1820 
• Cherokee County (TX) Probate Index 
  An index to probate minutes (1851-1853) from Volume C-2, Cherokee County, Texas.
• Cheshire Wills  ~ England
  Covers the years 1492 - 1940 and contains 130,000 entries. It covers probate documents proved at Chester mainly for Cheshire residents.
• Chester County Probate Records  ~ Pennsylvania
• Commissary Court of London Will Abstracts Volume 26 (1629-1634) 
  These will abstracts are from volume 26 of the registered wills for the Commissary Court of London. They can be found on LDS film # 0094108. The volume commences at the end of the year 1629 and continues into 1634.
• Consolidated Index to Lunenburg County Probated Wills 1770-1996  ~ Nova Scotia, Canada
• The Court Service  ~ United Kingdom
  The agency within the Lord Chancellor's Department responsible for the running of most of the courts and tribunals in England & Wales.
  • Wills & Probate 
    • Addresses of Probate Offices 
    • Guide to Obtaining Probate Records 
    • Probate Records and Family History 
• Dearborn County Indiana Transcribed Probate Inventories 
• Delmarva Genealogy Wills Page 
• Delta Computer Systems - Probate Court Baldwin County, Alabama 
• Digitalarkivet - Probate Registers  ~ Norway
  Searchable online databases.
• England Wills Exchange Database 
  Collection of will submissions for England arranged by county.
• Family Tree Genealogical and Probate Research Bureau Ltd. 
  Professional research service covering the area of what was formerly the Austro - Hungarian Empire, including: Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Austria, Italy, Transylvania, Croatia, Slovenia, former Yugoslavia (Banat), and the Ukraine (Sub-Carpathian).
• Finding Aid to Probate Records at the Connecticut State Library 
• Franklin County Indiana Transcribed Probate Inventories 
• Fredericksburg, VA General Index A-Z Inclusive Grantor to Grantee, Deeds, Trusts, Releases, Wills, Etc., to Jan. 2, 1920, through Deed Book 52, page 257, and Will Book J, Page 404. 
• A guide to obtaining copies of Probate Records 
  From the UK Court Service.
• Hoopers International Probate Genealogists 
  Established in the UK in 1923. Specializing in locating missing beneficiaries.
• How to Obtain Probate in the UK 
• How to Find a Will  ~ England
  From the East Sussex Record Office.
• An Index of Seventeenth Century Virginia Room by Room Inventories 
• An Index of Eighteenth Century Virginia Room by Room Inventories 
• An Index of Nineteenth Century Virginia Room by Room Inventories 
• Index of Ohio County, WV Wills, Through 1835 
• Index to PEI Probate Records  ~ Prince Edward Island, Canada
• GENUKI: England Topics - Probate Records 
• Georgia Intestate Records 
  A book by Jeannette Holland Austin.
• The Gloucestershire Record Office 
  • Genealogical Database 
    Searchable online database including wills, non-conformist baptisms and gaol registers.
• The Index to Texas Probate Records 
  An index of 26,000 probate records for eleven Texas counties.
• Irish Ancestors: Wills 
• Kosciusko County, Indiana - Index to the Early Wills 1844 - 1920 
• Lancashire Will Search 
  The purpose of this page is to provide a search engine to assist one in finding a will of a person who died in Lancashire, England from the time period of the mid sixteenth century to the early nineteenth century.
• Larry Medaglia: Register of Wills and Clerk of the Orphans' Court, Berks County, PA 
• A List of Wills, Madison County, Missouri 1822-1855 
• Local History Search Index  ~ Scioto County, Ohio
  From the Portsmouth Public Library.
  • Wills Index Information 
• London Signatures  ~ England
  Online index of 10,000 wills from the Archdeaconry Court of Middlesex. Copies of the wills can be purchased online.
  • Frequently Asked Questions 
• Loudoun Co., Virginia Documents 
  Includes transcripts of birth, bible, marriage, deeds, newspapers, letters, deaths, and wills for the following surnames: BRADEN, DEMORY, DULIN, ELGIN, FOX, GIDEON, HAGUE, HIXSON, HUMPHREY, MARKS, MOORE, PANCOAST, RAMEY, STEVENS and more.
• Lunenburg, Nova Scotia Will Extracts 
• Maryland State Archives Probate Records 
• Medieval & Tudor Kent P.C.C & C.C.C. Wills 
  Old wills from Kent, England.
• Montour County Will Index - 1850 to Present  ~ Pennsylvania
  Indexed alphabetically by surname.
• The National Archives | The Catalogue | Research Guides: A to Z 
  • Death Duty Records, From 1796 
  • How to Interpret Death Duty Registers 
  • Probate Records 
  • Wills and Death Duty Records, after 1858 
  • Wills before 1858 
• The National Archives | DocumentsOnline  ~ United Kingdom
  Access to The National Archives' collection of digitised public records, including both academic and family history sources. Searching is free, images are available for download for a fee.
  • Famous Wills in PROB1 
    Wills of various historical figures from the United Kingdom.
  • Wills 
    Includes a searchable index to probate records (wills) with over 800,000 wills from the period 1384 to 1858.
• National Archives of Scotland Fact Sheets - Wills & Testaments 
• Newfoundland Wills Index 
  Indexed by surname for 13,457 entries from 1830 to 1962. Includes microfilm numbers of their sources and information on how to obtain the actual wills.
  • Sample Newfoundland Will 
  • Scanned image of one index page 
• Northumberland County Will Index 1772-1859  ~ Pennsylvania
• Probate Court Index 1807-1900  ~ Miami County, Ohio
• Probate Database Search 
  Online searchable index to the holdings of the Delaware Public Archives' manuscript probate records from c. 1680 to c. 1925.
• Probate Index - Pioneer Families of Grand Traverse County, Michigan 
  Transcriptions of all local news columns from the Grand Traverse Herald for 1886 are being posted. This paper covered Grand Traverse, Benzie, Leelanau, Kalkaska, Wexford, and Antrim Co. MI.
• Probate Index: Thisted, Viborg, Aalborg & Randers Counties  ~ Denmark
  Online searchable database for four counties.
• Probate Notices from the Houston Morning Star Newspaper 1839-1844  ~ Texas
• Probate Records of Fulton County  ~ New York
• Registrars of Probate 
  Contact information by county. Provided by the Nova Scotia Genealogy Network Association.
• ScotlandsPeople 
  The official government source of genealogical data for Scotland. A partnership between General Register Office for Scotland, the National Archives of Scotland and the Court of the Lord Lyon enabled by Scotland Online.
  • Wills & Testaments 
    Free index search of over 611,000 index entries to Scottish wills and testaments dating from 1513 to 1901.
• Ripley County Indiana Transcribed Probate Inventories 
• Scottish Family History from 16th-17th Century Wills 
• Some Wills and Estate Settlements 
  Families from South Carolina, Virginia, Delaware. MAYFIELD, WEST, RODGERS, LEAGUE, COMPTON.
• St. Louis Probate Court Digitization Project: 1802 - 1900  ~ Missouri
  A collaborative project of the Missouri State Archives, a division of the Office of the Secretary of State and the St. Louis Probate Court. Probate files from 1802 to 1900 have been indexed and are available through the online database. To date, cases up to 1865 are digitized and images of the case documents are available for online research.
• Surrey Plus Wills Index  ~ Surrey, England
  The Surrey+ Wills Index provides an index to names of people (e.g., beneficiaries, tenants, creditors, witnesses) appearing in the Wills of Testators residing in the County of Surrey, England, and others of the Home Counties. Links are provided to transcripts of Wills, where available.
• Upper Canada Genealogy - Names in Prince Edward County Women's Wills and Estate Files 
  This index to all the people mentioned in women's wills and estate files in Prince Edward County, Ontario, Canada 1859-1900 includes heirs, executors, relatives, neighbours, witnesses, bondsmen, etc. It's a great way to learn more about Prince Edward County ancestors' relationships with one another.
• The Wedderburn Pages - Glossary 
  Glossary of archaic Scottish words and phrases useful for genealogical research, including terms linked to property and possessions, found in wills and testaments.
• Wills 
  From the United Kingdom's familyrecords.gov consortium.
• Wills and Administration Collection Index 
  Part of the Electronic Card Indexes from the Library of Virginia.
• Wills Database  ~ Cheshire, England
  Index covers the years 1492 - 1940 and contains 130,000 entries. It covers probate documents proved at Chester mainly for Cheshire residents. The index supplies name, place of residence (at the time of making the will), occupation and date of probate (usually within a year of death, although it can be much longer). It also indicates the type of record which survives. These could be a Will, 'Admon' or administration bond (normally when there is no will), Inventory of personal property or Codicil or other probate documents.
• Wills & Probate Records  ~ England
  From the Northamptonshire Record Office.
• Wills - Giles County  ~ Tennessee
• The Wiltshire Wills Project  ~ England
• Wood County Wills  ~ West Virginia

People & Families

• All Known Wills of the Mayflower Passengers 
• Bladen Co, NC Will of Matthew PRIDGEN 1818 
• ERB / LARKINS Genealogy: The 1769 Will of Nicholas Erb Jr 
  Complete text of the 1769 will of Nicholas (Claus) Erb Jr., 1737 Swiss-Amish immigrant to Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
• HAM Country - North Carolina Will and Estate Abstracts for the HAM Surname 
  State-wide index prior to 1900.
• MEAD Wills 
  150 wills of Meads in England, mainy 1400 to 1600.
• Nicholas LAKE’s Probate File 
  This is a *beautiful* example of how to transcribe a probate file, and how to publish the results on the web.
• Probate Records of David THOMAS 
  Clinton County, Indiana.
• RAIFORD, Matthew - 1752, Bladen County, North Carolina - Wills 
• SHERMANs of Yaxley 
  This site contains wills transcribed from "Some of the Descendants of Philip Sherman, First Secretary of Rhode Island" by Roy V. Sherman.
• Will of John WINGATE 

Publications, Software & Supplies

• Cyndi's List Genealogy Bookstore 
  A categorized list of genealogy research books that looks a lot like my bookshelf at home.

• Amazon.com Genealogy Bookstore - Wills  and Probate 
  The following are individual book titles of interest for this topic. The book links below point to the Amazon.com bookstore online where you may purchase the book if you wish. These links are provided to bring these published resources to your attention as an aid to your research. Follow the links to books of interest to make note of their title, author, publisher, and ISBN. You might then use this information to obtain the book from your local library or your favorite corner book shop.
  • Abstract of Early Kentucky Wills and Inventories: Copied from Original and Recorded Wills and Inventories 
    A book by Junie Estelle Stewart King.
  • Abstracts of North Carolina Wills 1663 - 1760 
    A book by J. Bryan Grimes.
  • Abstracts of Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania Wills, 1682-1726 
    A book by F. Edward Wright.
  • Abstracts of Philadelphia County Wills, 1726-1747 
    A book by F. Edward Wright.
  • Abstracts of the Wills and Estate Records of Granville County, North Carolina, 1808-1833 
    A book by Zae Hargett Gwynn.
  • Early New Brunswick (Canada Probate Records 1785-1835) 
    A book by R. Wallace Hale.
  • Estate Inventories: How to Use Them 
    A book by Kenneth L. Smith.
  • Index to the Will Books and Intestate Records of Lancaster County Pennsylvania 1729-1850 
    A book by Eleanore J. Fulton.
  • Inheritance in America: From Colonial Times to the Present 
    A book by Carole Shammas.
  • New York State Probate Records: A Genealogist's Guide to Testate and Intestate Records 
    A book by Gordon Lewis Remington.
  • Probate Genealogy of Williamson Co. Tn (1799-1832) 
    A book by Albert Johnson.
  • Probate Genealogy of Williamson Co. Tn (1833-1852) 
    A book by Albert L. Johnson Jr.
  • Surry County, Va., Wills, Estates Accounts and Inventories 1730-1800 
    A book by Lyndon H. Hart.
  • Wills and Other Probate Records: A Practical Guide to Researching Your Ancestors' Last Documents 
    A book by Karen Grannum.
  • Wills of Jefferson County, West Virginia, 1801-1899 
    A book by Dale Morrow.
  • Women and the Law of Property in Early America 
    A book by Marylynn Salmon.
• Eneclann: CD-ROM Index of Irish Wills 1484-1858 
  CD-ROM includes over 70,000 records that have never published before, containing over 100,000 names.
• Genealogical.com - Wills and Probate Records 
  The online store of Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc. & Clearfield Company.
  • North Carolina Wills - A Testator Index, 1665-1900, Corrected and revised edition 
    A book by Thornton W. Mitchell.
• Pennsylvania Wills, 1682-1834 
  A CD-ROM by Ancestry.

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