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| | link5=[[Canada Probate Records|Probate Records]] | | | link5=[[Canada Probate Records|Probate Records]] |
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| <div id="fsButtons"><span class="online_records_button">[[Canada Online Genealogy Records]]</span><span class="community_button">[[FamilySearch Genealogy Research Groups|Ask the <br>Community]]</span></div>
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| Probate records are court records that describe the distribution of a person’s estate after he dies. They may give:
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| *Death date.
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| *Names of heirs and guardians.
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| *Relationships.
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| *Residences.
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| *An inventory of the estate.
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| *Names of witnesses.
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| These records are very helpful for research because civil authorities began recording probate actions before they recorded birth and death records.
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| 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.
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| While probate records are one of the most accurate sources of genealogical evidence, use them with some caution because:
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| They may omit the names of deceased family members or those who previously received an inheritance.
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| The spouse mentioned in a will may not be the parent of the children mentioned.
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| Relationships noted in the records may not have the same meaning today.
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| === The Probate Process === | | === The Probate Process === |
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