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Some important insights to remember about probates:<br>a) male heirs became of age at marriage or if not married, at age 25 years <br>b) female heirs became of age at marriage, of if not married, they remain minor<br>regardless of their age<br>c) make it a practice to scan the debts/assets sections of the probate. As it is<br>true today, so it was then, money was often loaned/borrowed by relatives<br>d) half of the value of the estate went to the surviving spouse<br>e) male heirs received a double portion to the inheritance female heirs received<br>f) a surviving spouse could petition the court for a special status called “''utskifte<br>bo''”, which means that for as long as the widow remained unmarried and had<br>one minor heir in the household, the probate could be held up indefinitely.<br>Note: a stepmother could delay the probate for stepchildren by petitioning for<br>“''utskifte bo''” status <br>g) based upon which spouse predeceased the other, guardians were usually chosen<br>from the paternal side of the deceased according to the following order: grand-<br>father, brother, uncle, male cousin<br>h) only between 1/4 and 1/3 of the Swedish population was ever probated. There <br>needed to be adequate holdings to justify the holding of a probate inventory<br>i) At the end of the probate document, the following persons normally signed: (a <br>signature infers that each heir is in agreement with the inventory) surviving<br>spouse, sons, sons-in-law, appraisers. Note: most of the population of the late<br>1700s and early 1800s could not write. Therefore, one of the appraisers guided<br>the heir’s hand while he held the pen. Often signatures were simply initials.<br>For example, Jöns Andersson might write his name as J (öns) A (nders) S (on)<br> | Some important insights to remember about probates:<br>a) male heirs became of age at marriage or if not married, at age 25 years <br>b) female heirs became of age at marriage, of if not married, they remain minor<br>regardless of their age<br>c) make it a practice to scan the debts/assets sections of the probate. As it is<br>true today, so it was then, money was often loaned/borrowed by relatives<br>d) half of the value of the estate went to the surviving spouse<br>e) male heirs received a double portion to the inheritance female heirs received<br>f) a surviving spouse could petition the court for a special status called “''utskifte<br>bo''”, which means that for as long as the widow remained unmarried and had<br>one minor heir in the household, the probate could be held up indefinitely.<br>Note: a stepmother could delay the probate for stepchildren by petitioning for<br>“''utskifte bo''” status <br>g) based upon which spouse predeceased the other, guardians were usually chosen<br>from the paternal side of the deceased according to the following order: grand-<br>father, brother, uncle, male cousin<br>h) only between 1/4 and 1/3 of the Swedish population was ever probated. There <br>needed to be adequate holdings to justify the holding of a probate inventory<br>i) At the end of the probate document, the following persons normally signed: (a <br>signature infers that each heir is in agreement with the inventory) surviving<br>spouse, sons, sons-in-law, appraisers. Note: most of the population of the late<br>1700s and early 1800s could not write. Therefore, one of the appraisers guided<br>the heir’s hand while he held the pen. Often signatures were simply initials.<br>For example, Jöns Andersson might write his name as J (öns) A (nders) S (on)<br> | ||
===Finding a Probate=== | === Finding a Probate === | ||
In order to find a Swedish probate record, you must know the name of the court district<br>(''härad'') to which the parish belonged at the time of the ancestor’s death. Most härads consisted of between 3 to 8 parishes. | In order to find a Swedish probate record, you must know the name of the court district<br>(''härad'') to which the parish belonged at the time of the ancestor’s death. Most härads consisted of between 3 to 8 parishes. | ||
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There are certain life circumstances which suggest to the researcher that there is a strong likelihood that a probate exists and therefore, should be looked for. Some of these circumstances are:<br> | There are certain life circumstances which suggest to the researcher that there is a strong likelihood that a probate exists and therefore, should be looked for. Some of these circumstances are:<br> | ||
*Before a surviving spouse could remarry it was required by law that a probate be completed. | |||
*If the deceased is survived by minor children and these children are under the age of 25. | |||
*If the deceased is unmarried. | |||
* At the time of the first spouse’s death, the probability of a probate is greater than at the time of the surviving spouse’s death, providing that the surviving spouse did not ever remarry. | |||
*If the deceased leaves behind a large estate of property and personal effects <br> | |||
'''Availability of Probates''' | |||
*The original probate records are kept in the Provincial archives in Sweden. | |||
*Nearly all of the probate records from their beginning to about 1860 are available at the Family History Library and its centers on microfilm. The probate records are listed in the Family History Library Catalog under SWEDEN, name of COUNTY, name of DISTRICT (Härad), PROBATE RECORDS. The probate records for individuals who lived in a city would be found in the FHL catalog by going to SWEDEN, name of COUNTY, name of CITY, PROBATE RECORDS. | |||
*Arkiv Digital (http://www.arkivdigital.se/ ) offers a digitized view of probate records on their subscription website. Not all are available at present but soon will be. | |||
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'''Probate Indexes | |||
<br> | |||
*Indexes are available for some districts. These are noted in the FHL catalog by “register”. | |||
*Districts (Härad) with probate indexes are listed with FHL Film Call numbers in the book by Carl-Erik Johansson, “Cradled in Sweden”, Chapter 18. | |||
*<u>Halland County:</u> A person and place index for wills for Halland county has been created and is available on a CD. It only has a sampling for the cities of Halland county and also includes some wills from Älvsborg and Jönköping Counties. It is available to purchase through Hallands Genealogiska Förening on line at http://hgf.e-butik.se/ . It may be viewed at the Family History Library as CD-ROM no. 1069. | |||
*<u>Östergötland County:</u> Mari-Anne Olsson of Rönninge, Sweden has made indexes for the districts in Östergötland county. She also includes abbreviated preambles to the probate records of Östergötland. Her work has been microfilmed and is available at the Family History Library and its Centers. It is found in the FHL Catalog under name of Härad, Probate records – Indexes. <br> | |||
===Vocabulary=== | ===Vocabulary=== | ||