Wisconsin Probate Records

United States   Probate Records   Wisconsin Probate

Probate records are court records created after an individual’s death that relate to a court’s decisions regarding the distribution of the estate to the heirs or creditors and the care of any dependents. These documents are important to family history researchers because they usually exist for time periods before civil birth and death records were kept. While probate records are one of the most accurate sources of genealogical evidence, they have limitations.

Jurisdictions
In the territorial era, probate records were kept by probate courts. These files were eventually transferred to the clerk of the circuit court, where current records are also kept. You may obtain probate records by contacting the office of the clerk of circuit court.

The Family History Library has microfilm copies of probate files and indexes from many Wisconsin counties. For example, Milwaukee County microfilms include probate packets on 1,097 films from 1850–1910 and a general card index on 73 films for 1838–1915.