Enrollment options
Optional Course Print Material: English: Probate Records
*Course material will only be sent to students who are registered in the course.
This course will examine in some detail many aspects related to the subject of probate. The most important probate documents are wills, inventories, administrations, guardianships, and Death Duty Registers.
Wills are one of the most valuable sources available for the genealogist because they usually mention several family members, even from two or three generations. They are often the best or only means of verifying a family tree compiled from civil registration, census or parish registers. This course also offers suggestions and tips when visiting the FamilySearch Center or other sites holding documents, how to fill out forms requesting information, and how to interpret the documentation you receive.
Course Length: 7 weeks
MODULE 1
PREFACE
INTRODUCTION
MODULE 2
WILLS
History Affecting Probate
Making a Will
Inheritance of Real Estate
Inheritance of Personal Estate
Who Could Make a Will?
How & When Was a Will Made?
Noncupative Wills
Revocation by Marriage
Contents of a Will
Executors, Trustees & Overseers
Attestation & Witnessing
Codicils
Evidence from Witnesses
Probate Act or Grant of Probate
After the Probate
Encumbered Estates
Lapsed Legacies
Reading Wills
Valuations of Estates
Recording the Contents of a Will
Relationships
Daughters’ Marriages
Longest & Shortest Wills
Illegitimate Children
Children by Previous Spouses
Omission of a Family Member
Relatives in Far Places
Other Laws Affecting Wills
MODULE 3
ADMINISTRATIONS
When is an Administration Needed?
Intestacy Rules
What Records Were Kept?
Information in an Administration
Probate & Administration + Will
MODULE 4
PROBATE MATERIALS
Other Probate Materials
Appeals or Assignations
Bonds
Cause Papers
Caveats
Depositions
Diaries, Journals & Minute Books
Exhibits
Guardianships
Inventories
Limited or Special Grants
Monitions & Commissions
Non-Deposited Probate Records
Probate Accounts
Receipts for Legacies
Renunciations
Testamentary Suits
Disputes over the Validity of a Will
Disputes Over the Content of a Will
MODULE 5
FINDING PROBATES
What You Need to Start a Search For a Specific Will
Affluent But No Will or Admon?
Indexes of Testators
Wills Beneficiaries Indexes
Finding Probates from 1858
The Indexes
Obtaining the Administration Grant
Obtaining the Will & Probate Grant
How to Find Films of Wills for England 1858-1925
Obtaining Other Probate Documents
Finding Probates Before 1858
Understanding the System
The Peculiars
Wills Dealt with by Local Clergy
The Commonwealth & Interregnum
How to Find the Right ‘Chain’ of Courts
Kinds of Church Court Records
Lower Courts
Obtaining Copies From the Archive or CRO
Obtaining Copies From a Film
Prerogative Court of York
Using the Borthwick Institute
Using a FamilySearch Center
PCY Court of Chancery Will Disputes
Prerogative Court of Canterbury
Indexes to PCC Wills
Indexes to PCC Admons
Indexes to PCC Inventories
Other Will Collections
Courts of Orphans
Other Sources
MODULE 6
DEATH DUTY RECORDS
Genealogical Value of Death Duties
Death Duty Records
Finding Death Duty Indexes
Finding Death Duty Abstracts
Using Death Duty Admon Abstracts
Under Name of Administrator
Under Degree of Kindred of Administrator
Under Persons Beneficially Entitled
Under Property and Share
Using Death Duty Will Abstracts
Post 1858 Death Duty Registers
ISLE OF MAN AND CHANNEL ISLANDS PROBATE
CONCLUSION
REFERENCES & APPENDIX