Virginia Probate Records

Probate records have been kept at the county level in Virginia by the general court and by the county and circuit courts. In independent cities, probates are now kept by the clerks' offices of the circuit courts.

In probate case files you may find wills, inventories, appraisals, accounts, and bonds. Probate records may also be included in deed books and court order books.

The original probate records are at the county courthouses or at the Library of Virginia. The Family History Library and the Library of Virginia have microfilm copies of many probate records for most of the counties in Virginia. These include wills up to the 1860s and 1870s and indexes up to the 1940s and 1950s. For example, from Fairfax County the library has administration bonds (1752-82), will books (1742-1866), and a will index (1742-1951).

Some examples of abstracts of early probate records are:

Torrence, Clayton. Virginia Wills and Administrations, 1632-1800. 1930. Reprint, Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1985. (FHL book 975.5 P22t; film 844943.)

Hopkins, William Lindsay. Some Wills from Burned Counties of Virginia and Other Wills Not Listed in the Virginia Wills and Administrations, 1632-1800. Richmond, Virginia: W.L. Hopkins, 1987. (FHL book 975.5 P2h.)

Currer-Briggs, Noel. Virginia Settlers and English Adventurers, Abstracts of Wills, 1484-1798, and Legal Proceedings, 1560-1700, Relating to Early Virginia Families. Three volumes in one. Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing, 1970. (FHL book 975.5 P2cb.)

McGhan, Judith. Virginia Will Records. Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing, 1982. (FHL book 975.5 P2v.) Excerpted and reprinted from The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, the William and Mary Quarterly Historical Magazine, and Tyler's Quarterly Historical and Genealogical Magazine.

A helpful inventory of probate records at the Library of Virginia is:

Vogt, John, and T. William Kethley, Jr. Will and Estate Records in the Virginia State Library: A Researcher's Guide. Athens, Georgia: Iberian Publishing Company, 1987. (FHL book 975.5 P23v.)

Online Resources
http://www.gunstonhall.org/probate/inventory.htm