South Dakota Probate Records

Online Resources

 * North Dakota and South Dakota, Wills and Probate Records, 1800-1985, ($), index and images, incomplete.

Availability
Prior to statehood, probate records were kept by the Territorial Probate Court. Contact the Archives Division of the South Dakota Historical Society for copies of territorial probate records.

Probate records are presently kept by the district county courts. South Dakota probate records include probate proceedings, petitions, affidavits, orders for sales, reports of sales, administrators' and executors' bonds, guardianship papers, wills, and letters of administration.

The FamilySearch Library does not have copies of South Dakota probate records. You can obtain copies from the clerk's office in the various district county courthouses.

A wiki article describing an online collection is found at:

South Dakota, Minnehaha County, Probate Case Records - FamilySearch Historical Records