It seems traditional among news outlets to compile a "year in review" article at the end of each calendar year. This type of article assumes that there have been notable newsworthy incidents during the year and that people are conditioned to expect that type of news article. When I look at a few of those articles, I realize how far removed I am from the world of politics, entertainment and sports. I figure any list of genealogy news articles would have a similar reaction from most people. They would probably be saying something like, "Genealogy has news? What could that possibly be?" So I surely would not blame you if the things I mention as "big news stories in genealogy" are things you have never heard about.
First on the list of big news stories would have to be the constant updates from different online genealogy database programs of the millions upon millions of newly digitized and indexed records added to their collections. These sorts of announcements have become an almost constant background but there is possibly nothing else an important or with greater impact on the average genealogical researcher than these huge additions of previously relatively unavailable or difficult to obtain records. As I have predicted in the past, there is a point at which those living in the countries most affected will have enough records to, in many cases, adequately research a pedigree back four to six generations.
The next big news story in genealogy turns out to be old news with incremental changes. During the past two or three years, the largest online genealogy companies have concentrated on improving their automatic and semi-automatic research hints capabilities. Over the past year, I have seen all four of the big companies, Ancestry.com, MyHeritage.com, FamilySearch.org and findmypast.com, improve their own search capabilities and enable those who have family trees on their websites to find records that they otherwise would have overlooked or not found at all.
Acquisitions and partnerships were big news in 2014. FamilySearch.org has an ongoing agreement with the other three large genealogy companies and part of that agreement involves sharing content. During 2014, content from FamilySearch's Historical Record Collections began showing up more and more on the other large database programs. This increased the availability of the FamilySearch records dramatically. Meanwhile, acquisitions and additional partnerships kept apace. findmypast.com acquired Mocavo.com. BillionGraves.com and MyHeritage.com teamed up to preserve the world's cemeteries in photos.
#RootsTech 2014 came and went. There were other notable conferences around the United States and the world. Genealogists took quite a few cruises and bloggers reported on them. More and more webinars were held across the world. The genealogical community seemed to go on pretty much as normal. Except there was a noticeable shift in conferences. FamilySearch sponsored over 1000 local Family History Fairs. These free very local conferences were supplemented with content recorded at #RootsTech 2014. There began to be a definite trend that ate away at the attendance of all but the very largest conferences. Webinars and locally sponsored "free" conferences began to have their affect.
During the year, several companies announced apps for tablets and smartphones. But it seemed that these new programs were somewhat lost in the generally saturated online environment of the tablets and smartphones. Perhaps there is a limit to how many apps people can adsorb?
Now here we are at the end of another year. What will 2015 bring to the genealogical table? I don't want to appear stodgy but my guess is more of the same. There will be more acquisitions, more partnerships, more documents digitized, more conferences and maybe tucked in here and there a few surprises.
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Monday, December 29, 2014
Sunday, December 28, 2014
The Ins and Outs of Probate for Genealogists - Part Seven Continued -- Sub-part Two
In my last post in this series, I started to examine the probate file of Caleb W. Haws filed in Utah County, Utah. This particular file had 62 pages of documents. As I noted in the previous post, Caleb died in 1871 in England but his probate was ultimately not concluded until 1904. This illustrates an important fact about probate cases, they may be filed a relatively long time after death (in this case seven years) and not be concluded until many, many years after the death of the person. In addition, the probate action may take place a long way from where the person died.
To see the first part of this post see
The Ins and Outs of Probate for Genealogists - Part Seven - An Example of a Simple Probate File
At this point you may not be thinking that this file is so simple, but I can assure you that although it took a long time to finalize, this is a really simple probate file. Here is the next document in the file:
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This is the coversheet for the Order Appointing the Administrator of the Estate filed July 22, 1878. Each formal document in a probate file may have a cover sheet. It is important to examine these cover sheets because they may contain key information about the file. Most court files carry a file number which helps to find and keep track of the file. The file number in this case is P183 at the bottom left of the page.
It is interesting to review the dates when certain documents were filed with the Court. Some of the steps in the probate process have time limits set by the local rules of probate procedure. It is the nature of the court system and lawyers, that most wait until the last minute to do something. If the case was a regular civil litigation claim or even a criminal matter, the court imposed deadlines would be much more stringent. But in a probate court, few of the actions have deadlines and if they do, they are generally very liberal about filings. In some cases, if the deadlines are ignored, you may see orders from the court (judge) requiring one or more of the parties to file a document. In my experience, probate matters are almost never dismissed by the court unless it appears the matter is completely resolved. But in civil and criminal matters, dismissal is more common for a variety of reasons.
The next step in the probate process involves the filing of an administrators bond. Here are the screenshots:
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In this case, the deceased died intestate, that is without a will. Bear in mind that a probate action is not tied directly to a will. One of the main reasons for a probate action is to make sure the just debts and taxes of the deceased are paid before the property is distributed to the heirs. In most jurisdictions, any interested party can file a probate action for a deceased. For example, if a creditor is owed money and is concerned that the heirs will dissipate (distribute) the estate before the bill is paid, then the creditor can go to the court and force the estate to be probated and the bills paid. In addition, any one of the heirs, either with or without a will, could file a probate action in an attempt either to enforce the provisions of the will or to try to get the will disqualified and the property distributed in some other way.
If there is a will, the deceased testator can provide that his or her administrator act without the need for a bond. In some cases the court will also allow the administrator to act without a bond. But in the absence of a will (intestate) the court will commonly require an administrator to post a bond. This bond is essentially a guarantee that the bills will be paid and that the administrator will not steal money from the estate. It is not uncommon that the administrator will take money from the estate and again, it is not uncommon for the payments made to the administrator to become an issue. I have seen cases where the administrator took all the money and property in the estate and the heirs have had to sue on the administrators bond.
As in this case, you might think that the heirs, in this case the children, would want the mother to get all or the largest part of the estate, but in real life this seldom happens. It is amazing to see how greedy the heirs can become in a probate case. This is especially true if there are some alternative relationships in the family such as children from more than one marriage. Commonly, the child or children who have cared for the deceased parent decide that they are entitled to a greater portion of the estate than those children who, for whatever reason, did not participate in the care of the deceased. In some cases, the caregiver is not a member of the family and takes advantage of the position as caregiver to take money or property from the deceased. In this case, the heirs may file a separate lawsuit against the caregiver as part of the probate.
In this case and also commonly, the Administrators Bond is set at an amount that seems fair to the court (judge) and also protects the creditors and heirs. Here the bond is set at $1,500, an enormous sum at the time. Using an online inflation calculator, this is equivalent to over $35,000 today. I can only speculate, but I would assume the bond was set so high for the wife due to the length of time that had past since the death of her husband with no probate having been filed. She would have had ample time to spend the assets of the estate.
The surety for the bond was made by the three children of the deceased. This means that they agreed to pay the bond amount if there was a claim made against the bond. It is also not uncommon for the bond to be purchased from a third-party surety company such as a bonding company that, in effect, loans the bond amount (not actually paid unless there is a claim) for the payment of a premium.
As genealogists, you should be able to see the value of these transactions for establishing the family relationships and some of the details of the family life of the deceased. I realize I am working my way through this probate case rather slowly, but not nearly as slowly as these cases take to get through the court system. In the next installment, I will continue with the contents of this probate file.
Stay tuned for the continued parts of this particular post in the series on probate.
The Ins and Outs of Probate for Genealogists - Part One - In the Beginning
The Ins and Outs of Probate for Genealogists - Part Two - Where there is a will there is a way
The Ins and Outs of Probate for Genealogists - Part Three- Understanding the Language of a Will
The Ins and Outs of Probate for Genealogists - Part Four - What is Probate?
The Ins and Outs of Probate for Genealogists - Part Five - What are Probate Procedures?
To see the first part of this post see
The Ins and Outs of Probate for Genealogists - Part Seven - An Example of a Simple Probate File
At this point you may not be thinking that this file is so simple, but I can assure you that although it took a long time to finalize, this is a really simple probate file. Here is the next document in the file:
This is the coversheet for the Order Appointing the Administrator of the Estate filed July 22, 1878. Each formal document in a probate file may have a cover sheet. It is important to examine these cover sheets because they may contain key information about the file. Most court files carry a file number which helps to find and keep track of the file. The file number in this case is P183 at the bottom left of the page.
It is interesting to review the dates when certain documents were filed with the Court. Some of the steps in the probate process have time limits set by the local rules of probate procedure. It is the nature of the court system and lawyers, that most wait until the last minute to do something. If the case was a regular civil litigation claim or even a criminal matter, the court imposed deadlines would be much more stringent. But in a probate court, few of the actions have deadlines and if they do, they are generally very liberal about filings. In some cases, if the deadlines are ignored, you may see orders from the court (judge) requiring one or more of the parties to file a document. In my experience, probate matters are almost never dismissed by the court unless it appears the matter is completely resolved. But in civil and criminal matters, dismissal is more common for a variety of reasons.
The next step in the probate process involves the filing of an administrators bond. Here are the screenshots:
In this case, the deceased died intestate, that is without a will. Bear in mind that a probate action is not tied directly to a will. One of the main reasons for a probate action is to make sure the just debts and taxes of the deceased are paid before the property is distributed to the heirs. In most jurisdictions, any interested party can file a probate action for a deceased. For example, if a creditor is owed money and is concerned that the heirs will dissipate (distribute) the estate before the bill is paid, then the creditor can go to the court and force the estate to be probated and the bills paid. In addition, any one of the heirs, either with or without a will, could file a probate action in an attempt either to enforce the provisions of the will or to try to get the will disqualified and the property distributed in some other way.
If there is a will, the deceased testator can provide that his or her administrator act without the need for a bond. In some cases the court will also allow the administrator to act without a bond. But in the absence of a will (intestate) the court will commonly require an administrator to post a bond. This bond is essentially a guarantee that the bills will be paid and that the administrator will not steal money from the estate. It is not uncommon that the administrator will take money from the estate and again, it is not uncommon for the payments made to the administrator to become an issue. I have seen cases where the administrator took all the money and property in the estate and the heirs have had to sue on the administrators bond.
As in this case, you might think that the heirs, in this case the children, would want the mother to get all or the largest part of the estate, but in real life this seldom happens. It is amazing to see how greedy the heirs can become in a probate case. This is especially true if there are some alternative relationships in the family such as children from more than one marriage. Commonly, the child or children who have cared for the deceased parent decide that they are entitled to a greater portion of the estate than those children who, for whatever reason, did not participate in the care of the deceased. In some cases, the caregiver is not a member of the family and takes advantage of the position as caregiver to take money or property from the deceased. In this case, the heirs may file a separate lawsuit against the caregiver as part of the probate.
In this case and also commonly, the Administrators Bond is set at an amount that seems fair to the court (judge) and also protects the creditors and heirs. Here the bond is set at $1,500, an enormous sum at the time. Using an online inflation calculator, this is equivalent to over $35,000 today. I can only speculate, but I would assume the bond was set so high for the wife due to the length of time that had past since the death of her husband with no probate having been filed. She would have had ample time to spend the assets of the estate.
The surety for the bond was made by the three children of the deceased. This means that they agreed to pay the bond amount if there was a claim made against the bond. It is also not uncommon for the bond to be purchased from a third-party surety company such as a bonding company that, in effect, loans the bond amount (not actually paid unless there is a claim) for the payment of a premium.
As genealogists, you should be able to see the value of these transactions for establishing the family relationships and some of the details of the family life of the deceased. I realize I am working my way through this probate case rather slowly, but not nearly as slowly as these cases take to get through the court system. In the next installment, I will continue with the contents of this probate file.
Stay tuned for the continued parts of this particular post in the series on probate.
The Ins and Outs of Probate for Genealogists - Part One - In the Beginning
The Ins and Outs of Probate for Genealogists - Part Two - Where there is a will there is a way
The Ins and Outs of Probate for Genealogists - Part Three- Understanding the Language of a Will
The Ins and Outs of Probate for Genealogists - Part Four - What is Probate?
The Ins and Outs of Probate for Genealogists - Part Five - What are Probate Procedures?
Saturday, December 27, 2014
The Ins and Outs of Probate for Genealogists - Part Seven - An Example of a Simple Probate File
There are a huge number of probate files online. However, in many cases the files are not indexed and you must search the entire collection to see whether or not your ancestor's estate was subject to a probate action. It is very helpful to have an accurate death date to narrow the search. But you should also be aware that a probate action could be filed even years after an individual died. In the event addition property is found after an initial probate, then subsequent probate actions may be filed for after discovered property. It is also entirely possible that an ancestor owned land or property in more than one state, so individual probate actions, usually called ancillary probate actions are filed in each state where property was owned.
The FamilySearch.org Historical Record Collections contain 76 collections of probate files from around the United States. For example, the Utah, Probate Records, 1851-1961 contain 427,179 images. You might want to check FamilySearch.org frequently as new records are added weekly.
In this post, I will examine a random example of a probate file with an explanation about what you can expect to see. The file is from Utah County for Caleb W. Haws. It contains 62 pages. Caleb W. Haws died 20 November 1871. The last documents were filed in his probate action on 14 October 1904. Here is the Final Accounting and Petition for Distribution filed on about 13 April 1904 that partially explains what happened in this estate.
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Apparently, Caleb died and his wife was appointed the Administrator of his estate. Then she died without closing the estate and distributing the property. Then another administrator was appointed for her estate and the estate of her husband was merged into her estates and finally after 33 years, the estate was distributed and closed. Caleb died intestate as did his wife. You can see from the file that the property in the estate did not escheat to the state as many people believe happens if you die without a will, but it did take a long time in court. Having a will would not have made the case go any faster. If the widow had finalized the estate, there would have been two probate files.
Here we go with the file. I guess this might take more than one post to go through the entire file and explain each document.
This is the first document in the file:
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In this particular file, as commonly occurs, the first document you encounter is the cover sheet or file folder holding the probate. Sometimes there is just a name on the cover sheet, but this one has the name of the court and information about the person who did the digitizing of the file. Here is the next document in the file:
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This is usually the first or almost the first document in a probate file. It may have different titles, but here it is a copy of the Petition for Letters of Administration in this file. Interestingly, Caleb W. Haws died in Sheffield, England but was a resident of Provo, Utah, Utah. If you were searching for a death record for Caleb, you might have been frustrated because of his death in England. This could be the only local record of his death, but I highly doubt that.
This petition already gives the researcher very valuable information about the deceased's property. A good researcher would be following up with many avenues of research, such as a death notice in Utah County, a death notice or certificate of some kind in England, documents to find out where the deceased was buried, documents about the acquisition of the land in Utah County, a marriage record for Caleb and Eliza, and so forth. The file also poses some questions right off the bat. Why did Caleb die in England? How did he die? The file also gives the names of his three children.
A quick check of the FamilySearch.org Family Tree shows an entry for Caleb Wilmam (Welman, William, Wilmon, Wilber etc.) Haws and says he died in Barnsley, Yorkshire, England not Sheffield. This probate files is listed as a source and a note says he died of Smallpox while on a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Hmm, there seems to be a lot that could be added to the record in the Family Tree about this person. It looks like someone should figure out what his middle name was and clean up the file. It looks like there is a lot of information on this person and a lot left to be added to the Family Tree.
Stay tuned for the continued parts of this particular post in the series on probate.
The Ins and Outs of Probate for Genealogists - Part One - In the Beginning
The Ins and Outs of Probate for Genealogists - Part Two - Where there is a will there is a way
The Ins and Outs of Probate for Genealogists - Part Three- Understanding the Language of a Will
The Ins and Outs of Probate for Genealogists - Part Four - What is Probate?
The Ins and Outs of Probate for Genealogists - Part Five - What are Probate Procedures?
The Ins and Outs of Probate for Genealogists - Part Six - Where do I find probate documents?
Thursday, December 25, 2014
Comments on Becoming an Excellent Genealogist -- Chapter Thirteen
This is an ongoing series of chapter by chapter comments on the book,
Meyerink, Kory L., Tristan Tolman, and Linda K. Gulbrandsen. Becoming an Excellent Genealogist: Essays on Professional Research Skills. [Salt Lake City, Utah]: ICAPGen, 2012.
I am now commenting on Chapter 13, "Using DNA to Find Immigrant Origins" by Nathan W. Murphey, MA, AG.
Sometimes it is difficult to see the connection between a DNA study and traditional paper genealogy. In this relatively short chapter, Nathan has given a concise and persuasive explanation of how and why a DNA study can assist in advancing genealogical research without overlooking the need to follow a more traditional pattern. In discussing both the advantages and limitations of DNA investigation, he has taken a middle road that both acknowledges those advantages while, at the same time, not ignoring the limitations.
DNA studies have become the popular topic of genealogy conferences. At #RootsTech 2015, there are 8 separate classes planned on the subject of DNA testing. Here is one class description that gives an idea of the current attitude about the subject:
The methodology discussed in the chapter are a far cry from the far too common more casual approach to DNA testing. The chapter ends with a list of the specific steps necessary to establish a valid study. This type of article adequately fulfills the book's objective of helping the reader become an excellent genealogist.
As usual, the articles in this helpful book are a jumping off place for a great deal of discussion and further investigation. Here is a summary of the articles so far:
Meyerink, Kory L., Tristan Tolman, and Linda K. Gulbrandsen. Becoming an Excellent Genealogist: Essays on Professional Research Skills. [Salt Lake City, Utah]: ICAPGen, 2012.
I am now commenting on Chapter 13, "Using DNA to Find Immigrant Origins" by Nathan W. Murphey, MA, AG.
Sometimes it is difficult to see the connection between a DNA study and traditional paper genealogy. In this relatively short chapter, Nathan has given a concise and persuasive explanation of how and why a DNA study can assist in advancing genealogical research without overlooking the need to follow a more traditional pattern. In discussing both the advantages and limitations of DNA investigation, he has taken a middle road that both acknowledges those advantages while, at the same time, not ignoring the limitations.
DNA studies have become the popular topic of genealogy conferences. At #RootsTech 2015, there are 8 separate classes planned on the subject of DNA testing. Here is one class description that gives an idea of the current attitude about the subject:
It is all the rage, this DNA testing for genealogy. But what can it tell you? Even more importantly, what CAN’T it tell you? Learn the basics of DNA testing, and walk away with confidence in this area of research.Nathan expands on this need to examine both aspects in his introduction to the subject, quoting from page 129:
Researchers interested in soundly accomplishing this task will benefit from taking an interdisciplinary approach by combining evidence gleaned from genealogical, genetic. and surname studies. Genealogical skills will be required to us accurately document pedigrees in the countries of origin and destination and track down qualified living descendants of historical figures to participate. An adequate understanding of Y-chromosome DNA testing (which is not complicated as it may sound) will be needed to interpret participants' results. Knowledge of surnames and their frequencies, distributions, and meanings will also help researchers select the most appropriate immigrants to study.It is the need to "track down" qualified descendants who have a qualified ancestor that seems to the be the major limiting factor. The accuracy of any DNA testing procedure cannot overcome the inability to find people who fit within the parameters established by the research. As the quote indicates, there is a need to approach the subject by using surname studies and other seeming more mundane methods to validate the DNA test results.
The methodology discussed in the chapter are a far cry from the far too common more casual approach to DNA testing. The chapter ends with a list of the specific steps necessary to establish a valid study. This type of article adequately fulfills the book's objective of helping the reader become an excellent genealogist.
As usual, the articles in this helpful book are a jumping off place for a great deal of discussion and further investigation. Here is a summary of the articles so far:
- Comments on Becoming an Excellent Genealogist -- Chapter Twelve
- Comments on Becoming an Excellent Genealogist -- Chapter Eleven
- Comments on Becoming an Excellent Genealogist -- Chapter Ten
- Comments on Becoming an Excellent Genealogist -- Chapter Nine
- Comments on Becoming an Excellent Genealogist -- Chapter Eight
- Comments on Becoming an Excellent Genealogist -- Chapter Seven
- Comments on Becoming an Excellent Genealogist -- Chapter Six
- Comments on Becoming an Excellent Genealogist -- Chapter Five
- Comments on Becoming an Excellent Genealogist -- Chapter Four
- Comments on Becoming an Excellent Genealogist -- Chapter Three
- Comments on Becoming an Excellent Genealogist -- Chapter Two
- Comments on Becoming an Excellent Genealogist -- Chapter One
Wednesday, December 24, 2014
The Ins and Outs of Probate for Genealogists - Part Six - Where do I find probate documents?
Now you have decided that your ancestors were not all paupers and the residents of poor houses and just maybe, they had a few dollars or some property to leave to their heirs. Where do you go to find these genealogically valuable probate documents? But first an aside.
Genealogy as a pursuit has a checkered and somewhat notorious past. All has not been sweetness and light among those purporting to be genealogists, particularly those who promoted their services as professionals. Much of the bad side of genealogy in the past (and to some extent in the present) comes from that segment of the genealogical community that are looking for their fortunes as "lost heirs." If you would like a peek into this segment of our larger online community, I suggest a quick Google search on the following terms: "lost heirs genealogy money." This aspect of genealogy is actually a very valid and possibly profitable pursuit. Most of the world's probate laws provide that in event someone dies without heirs their estate escheats to the government. In my law practice, I actually saw this happen a couple of times over my almost forty years. I have previously posted about a particularly prominent example of a genealogist helping heirs find stolen property. Here is the previously posted videoL
If you were wondering whether genealogy had any beneficial aspects in the real world, then you should think about the good done by this one genealogist donating his time to resolving a real world problem.
Notwithstanding this excellent example of the beneficial use of genealogy, in the 1800s and into the early 1900s, many citizens of the United States paid unscrupulous genealogists large sums of money for bogus attempts to prove heirship to potentially escheated fortunes in England and elsewhere. The more honest of these so-called genealogists would take a percentage of any recovery. The less honest would take a substantial fee up front with no guarantee that any money would ever be recovered. There were just enough actual recoveries to fuel the process until what we have today in various firms specializing in lost heir recovery. This can happen, in part, because most money escheated to the state stays in a special fund for a period of time and becomes available for subsequent claims by heirs.
OK, enough of the very good, the very bad and the very gullible. For a more complete history of this aspect of genealogy, see Weil, François. Family Trees: A History of Genealogy in America. 2013.
If you have read the previous posts in this series, you probably have some vague idea that a probate action in a court generates a series of documents, pleadings filed in the court, that are still available many years after the action is terminated. With a few exceptions, these court documents seem to keep their case files indefinitely.
Of course, there have been those relatively few court houses that burned to the ground, but overall, there are huge quantities of court documents stored around the world. Now, where do we go to find these documents? Well, that depends. To start, you may wish to read a Marquette Law Review article entitled, "The History of the Probate Court." Yes, beginning genealogical research in probate cases involves a steep learning curve, but the information is worth the effort. Fortunately, court probate files are one area where there is a decided movement for digitization. At this point, you should probably be aware of the Law Commons (if you are not overwhelmed at this point, you should be).
Let's just say that historically and clear up to present times, the court system has always had especially established courts or divisions of the court system to handle probate matters. In the United States, these courts are usually based in the county court system. Depending on the size of the case load in a county, the probate court may or may not be an entirely separate division. In smaller counties, probate matters are mixed in with everything else. In larger, more populous counties, probate actions may be handled by an entirely separately maintained court division. The following is a quote from the FamilySearch Research Wiki that should give you the idea that your first task in researching probate matters is to figure out which court or other entity has the records:
Genealogy as a pursuit has a checkered and somewhat notorious past. All has not been sweetness and light among those purporting to be genealogists, particularly those who promoted their services as professionals. Much of the bad side of genealogy in the past (and to some extent in the present) comes from that segment of the genealogical community that are looking for their fortunes as "lost heirs." If you would like a peek into this segment of our larger online community, I suggest a quick Google search on the following terms: "lost heirs genealogy money." This aspect of genealogy is actually a very valid and possibly profitable pursuit. Most of the world's probate laws provide that in event someone dies without heirs their estate escheats to the government. In my law practice, I actually saw this happen a couple of times over my almost forty years. I have previously posted about a particularly prominent example of a genealogist helping heirs find stolen property. Here is the previously posted videoL
If you were wondering whether genealogy had any beneficial aspects in the real world, then you should think about the good done by this one genealogist donating his time to resolving a real world problem.
Notwithstanding this excellent example of the beneficial use of genealogy, in the 1800s and into the early 1900s, many citizens of the United States paid unscrupulous genealogists large sums of money for bogus attempts to prove heirship to potentially escheated fortunes in England and elsewhere. The more honest of these so-called genealogists would take a percentage of any recovery. The less honest would take a substantial fee up front with no guarantee that any money would ever be recovered. There were just enough actual recoveries to fuel the process until what we have today in various firms specializing in lost heir recovery. This can happen, in part, because most money escheated to the state stays in a special fund for a period of time and becomes available for subsequent claims by heirs.
OK, enough of the very good, the very bad and the very gullible. For a more complete history of this aspect of genealogy, see Weil, François. Family Trees: A History of Genealogy in America. 2013.
If you have read the previous posts in this series, you probably have some vague idea that a probate action in a court generates a series of documents, pleadings filed in the court, that are still available many years after the action is terminated. With a few exceptions, these court documents seem to keep their case files indefinitely.
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| Coolcaesar at the English language Wikipedia [GFDL (www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], via Wikimedia Commons |
Let's just say that historically and clear up to present times, the court system has always had especially established courts or divisions of the court system to handle probate matters. In the United States, these courts are usually based in the county court system. Depending on the size of the case load in a county, the probate court may or may not be an entirely separate division. In smaller counties, probate matters are mixed in with everything else. In larger, more populous counties, probate actions may be handled by an entirely separately maintained court division. The following is a quote from the FamilySearch Research Wiki that should give you the idea that your first task in researching probate matters is to figure out which court or other entity has the records:
Probate is a function of state governments. Therefore, the laws and resulting records vary from state to state and changed over time. Probate records for many states can be found at the local county courthouse. The particular office of jurisdiction might be that of the Probate Court, the Equity Court, the Register of Wills, the County Clerk, the Circuit Court, or others. Some colonial records were kept by the town or the colony. See the wiki pages of each state for more information on pre-statehood, historical, and current probate records and jurisdictions.
The U.S. government had jurisdiction over the probate records for Native American or Indian tribes. The Bureau of Indians Affairs had agencies responsible for regional groups of recognized tribes. The Field Office of the appropriate tribal agency kept any probate records. These are found at the National Archives branch designated to archive the records for the pertinent agency.Here are what I would consider to be the steps in discovering probate documents.
- Determine the date of death of an ancestor.
- Determine the exact place of death.
- Investigate and determine which court or other entity handled probate matters at the time and place of the ancestor's death.
- Determine where the surviving records are stored and whether or not the records are available online in digitized format. This may involve a search in several online databases.
- Search the court or other entity records both before and for a time period after the death of the ancestor. You may find probate actions filed years after the date of death.
You may note that I refer to "other entities" other than the courts when I talk about probate records. This is due, in part, to the fact that in early times in America, probate records were sometimes recorded in town records (mostly in New England) and in other types of records. There really is a need to investigate the local history of probate records to determine where these records may be located. In addition, as with many other records, originals or copies of these records may be in historical societies, local and state archives and in court maintained archives around the country.
Stay tuned for the next installment. Yes, this series will go on and on. One last comment, do not ever assume that your ancestor's estate was too small to have created a probate court record.
The Ins and Outs of Probate for Genealogists - Part One - In the Beginning
The Ins and Outs of Probate for Genealogists - Part Two - Where there is a will there is a way
The Ins and Outs of Probate for Genealogists - Part Three- Understanding the Language of a Will
The Ins and Outs of Probate for Genealogists - Part Four - What is Probate?
The Ins and Outs of Probate for Genealogists - Part Five - What are Probate Procedures?
Stay tuned for the next installment. Yes, this series will go on and on. One last comment, do not ever assume that your ancestor's estate was too small to have created a probate court record.
The Ins and Outs of Probate for Genealogists - Part One - In the Beginning
The Ins and Outs of Probate for Genealogists - Part Two - Where there is a will there is a way
The Ins and Outs of Probate for Genealogists - Part Three- Understanding the Language of a Will
The Ins and Outs of Probate for Genealogists - Part Four - What is Probate?
The Ins and Outs of Probate for Genealogists - Part Five - What are Probate Procedures?
Tuesday, December 23, 2014
Valuable Resources in the FSFamilyTreeUserGroup
I have been very impressed with the depth and quality of the PowerPoint presentations on the relatively new FSFamilyTreeUserGroup.com website. Basically, this is a cooperative website for the FamilySearch.org Family Tree community. The website presents very detailed explanations of some of the basics and even some of the advanced features of the Family Tree program. The training presentations can be used by the subscribers to teach classes etc. Here is a description of the contents of the website so far:
Family Tree TrainingThe FSFamilyTreeUserGroup.com is not sponsored by or supported by FamilySearch. But the material they have on the website is extremely helpful to learning and working with the Family Tree program.
Here you will find a wealth of topics covering how to use Family Tree and its related functions. It is extremely important for users of Family Tree, including youth, to get correct training on how to Correct, Add, Edit, and Delete Data and Relationships; how to Source data to prevent others from changing it; how to do Descendancy Searches on Family Tree and Puzzilla.org; how to Add Memories (photos, stories, documents); how to Hasten the work doing valid Temple Ordinances; how to correctly Merge duplicate records; and much more.These presentations by members of this FS Family Tree User Group, and Leland Moon from FamilySearch.org, can be used in classes to teach others, or simply at home for yourself. Some are more like comprehensive documents and some are designed for quick reference.
Getting Started with Korean Language Resources for Genealogical Research
You can use Google Translate to translate this post into Korean. See the link on the right side of this blog. 당신은 구글이 한국어로이 기사를 번역 할 수 있습니다. 이 블로그의 오른쪽에있는 링크를 참조하십시오.
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| Diagram indicating Korean American settlement in the United States. Image as based on the census 2000 by the U.S. Census Bureau. |
Quoting from the Wikipedia article on Korean Americans:
According to the 2010 Census, there were approximately 1.7 million people of Korean descent residing in the United States, making it the country with the second largest Korean population living outside Korea (after the People's Republic of China). The ten states with the largest estimated Korean American populations were California (452,000; 1.2%), New York (141,000, 0.7%),New Jersey (94,000, 1.1%), Virginia (71,000, 0.9%), Texas (68,000, 0.3%), Washington (62,400, 0.9%), Illinois (61,500, 0.5%), Georgia (52,500, 0.5%), Maryland (49,000, 0.8%), and Pennsylvania(41,000, 0.3%). Hawaii was the state with the highest concentration of Korean Americans, at 1.8%, or 23,200 people.Further quoting from the same Wikipedia article:
According to the statistics of the Overseas Korean Foundation and the Republic of Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, 107,145 South Korean children were adopted into the United States between 1953-2007.Of course, the Korean Peninsula is divided into two completely different countries; North and South Korea. The political situation in North Korea makes doing research inside of that country very, very difficult, but South Korea is a different matter.
To begin your research in Korean genealogy, you should go to the FamilySearch.org Research Wiki article on South Korea. Links on that page will take you to several valuable online resources. By no means is the information in the Research Wiki complete, but it is a good place to begin. I also suggest the Korean Studies portal from Brigham Young University. You should also be aware of the assistance of Google Translate for those researchers who need help with the Korean language.
There is a very good blog called Korean Genealogy with links to many resources. The blog is authored by Jason Howard who has written a book entitled Korean Genealogy Guide. The book is also available on Amazon.com. The book is described as follows:
The Korean Genealogy Guide helps English speakers interpret Korean family registers (JokBo). It serves as both a reference and instruction guide on Korean writing (HanGul and HanJa), names, numbers, dates, history, and genealogy vocabulary. It includes examples of how to interpret the structure and content of Korean family registries to discover ancestors. It also instructs how to use internet resources to find and interpret Korean genealogical records.FamilySearch.org's Historical Record Collections contain two major collections of original Korean records:
- Korea, Collection of Genealogies, 1500-2012 with 2,515,280 records
- Korea, Civil Service Examinations and Records of Officials and Employees, 1392-1910 with 3,927 images
You can do a Google search for "ebooks JokBo" or Family Registers. I also suggest the following websites:
- Center for Korean Studies Materials
- Inje University Genealogy Library
- Expatriate Forums in South Korea
- Directory of Cities, Towns, and Regions in Korea, Republic of (South)
- South Korea GenWeb Project
- National Archives of Korea
- The Korea Society
- The Korean Way
- Korean Family and Kinship Terms
It is too bad that I do not speak Korean, but I do know how to do research in almost any language and place. From my perspective, genealogy is genealogy. There are certain things you need to know about doing research in any area. If I were going to get started with Korean genealogy, I would begin by getting the book cited above and reading it all the way through. I would also learn the Korean script. If you already know both of these, you are on your way.
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