Delaware Probate Records: Difference between revisions

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.”<ref>Henry Campbell Black, ''Black's Law Dictionary,'' 5th ed. (St. Paul, Minnesota: West Publishing Co., 1979), 1081, "probate."</ref> Various records are included in probate files. These may include [[United States Probate Wills|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|probate process]], types of probate records, [[Analyzing United States Probate Records|analyzing probate records]], and to access a [[Glossary of United States Probate Terms|glossary]] of probate terms, see [[United_States_Probate_Records|United States Probate Records]].  

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.  

*[http://archives.delaware.gov/collections/probate.shtml 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.