Kentucky Probate Records

Probate records are court records created after an individual’s death that relate to a court’s decisions regarding the distribution of his or her estate to heirs or creditors and the care of the deceased’s dependents. You may find the individual’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.

Probate records of Kentucky are kept by the county clerk. Copies of probate records are also available at the Department of Libraries and Archives and the Kentucky Historical Society.

The Family History Library has microfilm copies of probate records from most counties. Probate records may include such documents as wills, letters of administration, guardianships, probate journals, probate packets, and adoptions. The probate packets, which contain all documents pertaining to a probate case, have the most genealogical information, but few are available at the Family History Library.

Two sources for Kentucky probate records are:

Index to Kentucky Wills to 1851, the Testators. Salt Lake City, Utah: Accelerated Indexing Systems, 1979. (Family History Library book 976.9 P22i.) This index shows the testator’s name, county, year of the will, volume, and page number.

King, Junie Estelle Stewart. ''Abstract[s] of Early Kentucky Wills and Inventories. 1933''. Reprint, Baltimore, Maryland.: Genealogical Publishing, 1961. (Family History Library book 976.9 S2k; film 897212 item5; fiche 6051356.) This contains a surname index.

See the United States Research Outline for more information on probate records and their genealogical value.

Probate records are listed in the Place Search of the Family History Library Catalog under:

KENTUCKY, [COUNTY]- PROBATE RECORDS