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Probate records are court records that describe the distribution of a person’s estate after he dies. They may give: | |||
*Death date. | |||
*Names of heirs and guardians. | |||
*Relationships. | |||
*Residences. | |||
*An inventory of the estate. | |||
*Names of witnesses. | |||
These records are very helpful for research because civil authorities began recording probate actions before they recorded birth and death records. | |||
Probate records were not created for every person who died. The laws of Prince Edward Island and Quebec required all estates to be probated, whether or not the individual left a will. In Ontario thousands of wills were registered at land offices and did not go through a court probate process. See [[Ontario Land Records|Ontario Land and Property]]. In other Canadian provinces, estates were probated for perhaps 10 percent of the heads of household before 1900. | |||
While probate records are one of the most accurate sources of genealogical evidence, use them with some caution because: | |||
They may omit the names of deceased family members or those who previously received an inheritance. | |||
The spouse mentioned in a will may not be the parent of the children mentioned. | |||
Relationships noted in the records may not have the same meaning today. | |||
=== The Probate Process === | === The Probate Process === | ||
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