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Delaware Probate Records

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Record Synopsis

Probate is the “court procedure by which a will is proved to be valid or invalid” and encompasses “all matters and proceedings pertaining to the administration of estates, guardianships, etc.”[1] Various records are included in probate files. These may include wills, bonds, petitions, accounts, inventories, administrations, orders, decrees, and distributions. These documents are extremely valuable to genealogists and should not be neglected. In many instances, they are the only known source of relevant information such as the decedent’s date of death, names of his or her spouse, children, parents, siblings, in-laws, neighbors, associates, relatives, and their places of residence. They may also include information about adoption or guardianship of minor children and dependents. For further information about the probate process, types of probate records, analyzing probate records, and to access a glossary of probate terms, see United States Probate Records.

History

Variations existed within counties as probate jurisdictions and county boundaries changed over the years.

Colonial records may also be found in Maryland, New York and Pennsylvania

State

State Statutes

Understanding the Delaware probate laws and how they changed over time can help us learn how the estate was administered, taxed, and distributed and might help to solve difficult genealogical problems.

Additional information about Delaware state statutes relating to probate matters can be found at law libraries. For example:

Online digital versions of state statutes can often be found by conducting a search engine search for the term, "Delaware statutes." The following are examples of free, digital books related to Delaware probate laws:

Repositories

Local

Probate records in Delaware have been kept by the register of wills in each county from 1682 to the present. The FamilySearch Library has probate indexes and records for all three counties, including wills, administrations, and guardian accounts to about 1850. Most of the original records are at the Delaware Public Archives.

Published county court records for the 1600s refer to many probate matters. These can be found in the Library Catalog Place Search under DELAWARE, [COUNTY] - COURT RECORDS

Wills, administrations, and guardian accounts to about 1850 are frequently listed in Orphans' Court records. A statewide index has been prepared to the year 1800:

Regional

Bureau of Archives and Records Management
Hall of Records
Dover, Delaware 19902

The Bureau has records from the Swedish colonial period, the Dutch settlement, the Duke of York, and the Penn proprietorship. Most of their records are from statehood.

National

Statewide Record Collection

Probate records database, early to 1925;available at the Delaware Public Archives site: www.state.de.us/sos/dpa/collections/probate.shtml


Indexes

Virdin, Donald O. Colonial Delaware Wills and Estates to 1800: An Index. Bowie, Maryland, Heritage Books, 1994. (FamilySearch Library book 975.1 P22v.) This contains an alphabetical index of recorded wills of the entire state, listing name, date, county, book and page.

  • Probates Records Database These indexes are the primary finding aid to themanuscript probate records for all three Delaware counties from c. 1680 to c. 1925. They index the names of the deceased for whom the files were created. Contained in each index are the individual's name, and a date or dates. The dates correspond to the date of the documents within that individual's file and may refer to a date of the will or to a date for probate to begin. New Castle and Kent County Probates are on self service microfilm available in the Research Room of the Delaware State Archives, and Sussex is in the process of being filmed. Copies of this microfilm are also available for sale.
  • Extracts of Delaware wills are at www.ancestry.com which is a subscription website.

Abstracts of wills up to 1800 have been published in the following volumes. Each volume includes an index that contains every name mentioned in the wills.

  • A Calendar of Delaware Wills, New Castle County, 1682-1800. New York, NY: National Society of the Colonial Dames of America, 1911; Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1969. FS Library book 975.11 S2n.
  • DeValinger, Leon. A Calendar of Kent County, Delaware Probate Records, 1680-1800. Dover, Delaware: Public Archives Commission, 1944. FamilySearch Library film 1035860 item 4; fiche 6051248. Facsimile reproduction of the original FamilySearch Library book 975.14 P28d.
  • DeValinger, Leon. A Calendar of Sussex County, Delaware Probate Records, 1680-1800. Dover, Delaware: Public Archives Commission, 1964.

Learn More

Published Materials

  • The First Laws of the State of Delaware 4 vols. (1797) Reprint Wilmington Delaware: Scholarly Resources
  • Anne Roach, Courthouse Records Overview (35 minute online video) FamilySearch Research Classes Online, 2010.
  • Rose, Christine.Courthouse Research for Family Historians: Your Guide to Genealogical Treasures. San Jose, California: CR Publications, 2004. Of particular interest are the chapters, "Estates Galore," "Estate Documents," "Milking Every Clue from Estates," and "Strategies that Work." [2]
  • Szucs, Loretto Dennis and Sandra Hargreaves Luebking, editors. The Source: A Guidebook to American Genealogy. Third edition. Salt Lake City, Utah: Ancestry, Inc., 2006. Of particular interest is the section, "Probate," pages 268 - 277. FS Library 973 D27
  • Virdin, Donald O. Colonial Delaware Wills and Estates to 1880; An Index. Bowie, Maryland:Heritage Books, 1994.

Websites

References

  • Eichholz, Alice, Editor. Redbook: American State, County, and Town Sources. Third Edition. Provo, Utah: Ancestry, 2004, 185. FS Library 973 D27rb
  • Greenwood, Val D. Third edition. The Researcher's Guide to American Genealogy. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc. 2000, 346. FS Library 973 D27g

References

  1. ↑ Henry Campbell Black, Black's Law Dictionary, 5th ed. (St. Paul, Minnesota: West Publishing Co., 1979), 1081, "probate."
  2. ↑ FS Library 929.1072 R72c
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