12.6 Probate and Trusts
The probate process produces documents that can be important to genealogical research projects. The action or process of proving before a competent judicial authority that a document offered for official recognition and registration as the last will and testament of a deceased person is genuine. is defined as “the action or process of proving before a competent judicial authority that a document offered for official recognition and registration as the last will and testament of a deceased person is genuine.”1 Figure 12.2 gives an overview of the probate process and each step should be documented by the will or in court records.
There may also be inventories of the estate as part of will or probate records. More recent wills and probate documents are usually found in court records. The older they are, however, the more likely they are to be archived in church records or kept with legal documents stored in a family archive.
CHICAGO STYLE:
Name of collection in quotation marks, name of individual with year and standardized place, italicized website, access date written in full month, numerical day, year, url.2
“Probate files collection, early to 1880: Probate packets - Beecher, B.-Beecher, Philena, 1683-1880,” Ebenezer Beecher will proved 24 February 1763 in New Haven, Connecticut, Colonial North America, FamilySearch, accessed December 2, 2024, https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-8925-JPDP?cat=141959&i=287&lang=en.
EVIDENCE EXPLAINED:
Description of record set, place, description of record, "Estate of" name of research subject, year; description of database, name of collection in quotation marks, italicized repository, (url : standardized access date) probate details inlcuding image numbers.3
New Haven Probate District, Connecticut, probate case file 1079, Estate of Ebenezer Becher, 1763; image only collection, “Probate files collection, early to 1880,” FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-8925-JPDP?cat=141959i=287lang=en : accessed 2 December 2024) > Probate packets - Beecher, B.-Beecher, Philena, 1683-1880> image 288 of 1467.
SENSIBLE CITATION:
Collection name in quotations marks, individual and description of item with standardized date and standardized place, describe the database, add identifying information, italicized website, standardized access date. Embed the url from the person’s name to the end of the standardized place.
“Probate files collection, early to 1880: Probate packets - Beecher, B.-Beecher, Philena, 1683-1880,” Ebenezer Beecher will proved 24 February 1763 in New Haven, Connecticut, Colonial North America, image only database, film 1022982, image group number 7628480, images 288-292, FamilySearch.org, accessed 2 December 2024.
One reason people create trusts is to avoid the probate process, but that is not the only reason a trust may come up in genealogical research. Family trusts might be put in place because of a sequestration, bankruptcy, a marriage contract, an entail, or from the need to have an estate administered while the granter was overseas, subject to some incapacity (such as minory), too young to inherit fully, or suffering from mental incapacity or long-term illness. Most are intended to direct the disposition and settlement of assets after death and sometimes down through the succeeding generations.4
Trusts contain similar information to wills and probate records and show the structure set up to provide for posterity or disseminate wealth. Other records that may be useful are business ledgers, collection or debt documents, donation records, and tax filings.