New Brunswick Probate Records

Online Records

 * Probate court record indexes for counties in New Brunswick PANB. This can be consulted at a Family history Center near you.
 * Wallace Hale's Early New Brunswick Probate, 1785-1835, index

Probate Records
Probate records include wills, petitions, letters of administration and testamentary, and inventories. Most wills were created by individuals with substantial property. Most poor people, such as farmers and workers, arranged their affairs without legal action. Wills can give relationships, names, and dates. Wills are nice to find, sometimes they mention every member of a family, but if the older children have already been given land or funding for some enterprise, they may not be included, or will be left some nominal sum or token. Administration papers can be far more informative. Even an estate of a few hundred dollars must be divided among all the legal heirs. Probate is a county matter, and at one time probate records were held in each of the fifteen counties. Most surviving early records have been transferred to the provincial archives and microfilmed copies returned to the county.

Indexes

 * Wallace Hale's Early New Brunswick Probate, 1785-1835 Online,
 * Early New Brunswick Probate Records 1785-1835 Book WorldCat  R. Wallace Hale, (Bowie, Maryland: Heritage Books Inc., 1989), has abstracted the essential names, dates and data from early probate documents at the PANB, arranged them alphabetically by name of deceased and indexed all names.


 * Probate court record indexes for counties in New Brunswick PANB. This can be consulted at a Family history Center near you.

County Guides
Probate records exist as both probate files and probate books, the former containing all the assorted documents, the books contain an abstract of the probate proceedings. Indexed files and registers are available for most counties. A summary of what exists and what is microfilmed is found in the County Guides of the Provincial Archives of New Brunbswick.

Provincial Archives of New Brunswick
Until recently, most probate records were held in the county courthouses of New Brunswick. These records have been moved to the Provincial Archives. Most of the probate files are arranged chronologically and then alphabetically. Indexes exist for most probate files. Record Group 7 at the Provincial Archives contains probates for the following years:


 * Albert Co.1845–1855 (misc.)
 * Carleton Co.1833–1964
 * Charlotte Co.1785–1965
 * Gloucester Co.1836–1964
 * Kent Co.destroyed by fire
 * Kings Co.1786–1964
 * Madawaska Co.1894–1966
 * Northumberland Co.1860–1966
 * Queens Co.1785–1976
 * Restigouche Co.1839–1968
 * St. John Co.1785–1904
 * incomplete to 1963
 * Sunbury Co.1786–1976
 * Victoria Co.1845–1960
 * Westmorland Co.1787–1885 (misc.)
 * York Co.1786–1976