Vermont Probate Records

Background Information

Probate records are court records created after a person’s death that relate to a court’s decisions regarding the distribution of his estate to his heirs or creditors and the care of his dependents. You may find the person’s death date, the names of family members (including married daughters), family relationships, and residences. You may also learn about the adoption or guardianship of minor children and dependents. These documents are important to family history researchers because they usually exist for time periods before civil birth and death records were kept.

Adoption

Adoption cases over 99 years old are open to the public.

Availability

Probate records of Vermont are kept by probate courts. The records include wills, inventories, estates, guardianships, name changes, adoptions, and relinquishments. There are 14 counties and 18 probate districts in Vermont. The four southern counties (Bennington, Rutland, Windham, and Windsor) have two probate courts each. You can obtain copies of the records by contacting the clerk of the appropriate probate district.

For the addresses of the probate district courts, see:

Genealogist’s Handbook for New England Research

You can find similar information in:

Vermont Probate Districts. In VTGenWeb [database online]. N.p., 12 August 1999 [cited 25 August 1999]. Available at www.rootsweb.com/~vtgenweb/probate.htm. This site lists the counties, brief county history sketches, each probate district with its address, telephone number, and office hours.

Major Repositories

Family History Library. Many of the records are on microfilm at the Family History Library. They can be found in the Family History Library Catalog by using a Place Search under:

VERMONT, [COUNTY]- PROBATE RECORDS

VERMONT, [COUNTY]- GUARDIANSHIP

General Services and Records Center

New England Historic Genealogical Society

Statewide Record Collections

Vermont probate files or packets are being digitized and made available at http://labs.familysearch.org/.

References

Vermont Research Outline. Salt Lake City, Utah: Intellectual Reserve, Inc., Family History Department, 1998, 2001.