Pennsylvania Probate Records

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Record Overview
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. You may find the names of married daughters or other relatives and their residences; or information about the adoption or guardianship of minor children and dependents. Probate records do not always give an exact date of death, but the death usually occurred within four months of probate. 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 may include: petitions, wills, bonds, inventories, publications, accounts, divisions,claims, letters of administration, probate journals, probate packets,

Other documents may include: adoption, deed, guardianship, legitimation of children, manumissions, apprenticeships, dower rights and releases, deeds, tax leins, land sold for back taxes, widow allowances, order of distribution, decree of heirship

History
Probates have been recorded on a county basis since the origin of the Commonwealth in 1682. Complete records are available in most counties. Probate actions taken in a locality before the present county was formed are found in records of the parent county.

State Statutes
Understanding the Pennsylvania probate laws and how they changed over time can help us learn how the estate was administered, taxed, and distributed and might help to solve difficult genealogical problems.

Additional information about Pennsylvania state statutes relating to probate matters can be found at law libraries. For example:

Online digital versions of state statutes can often be found by conducting a search engine search for the term, "Pennsylvania statutes." The following are examples of free, digital books related to Pennsylvania probate laws:

Availability
Pennsylvania wills have been filed with the "register of wills" in each county, where they are recorded in indexed books.

The records of the orphan's court include minute books, proceedings, dockets, appeals, bonds, inventories, distributions of estates, marriages (since 1885), births and deaths (1893-1905), and adoptions (since 1925). Published abstracts of wills and administrations with comprehensive indexes are available for most of the oldest or largest counties.

The docket index, estate index, or general index is the first place to search for evidence of probate proceedings. These indexes list all the records created for a particular probate. The Family History Library has obtained microfilm copies of many of these indexes, often up to the 1960s.

The various documents (bonds, letters, inventories, etc.) are usually transcribed into Orphans' Court Record Books or Administrator's Account Books. The Family History Library has microfilmed the wills and orphans' court records for most counties, usually up to the early 1900s. For example, the library has:


 * Philadelphia County (Pennsylvania). Register of Wills. Wills, 1682-1916; Indexes to Wills, 1682-1924. (On 327 Family History Library films beginning with 1311039.)
 * Pennsylvania. Orphans' Court (Philadelphia County). Orphans' Court Records, 1719-1880: Orphans' Court Index, 1719-1938. (On 417 Family History Library films beginning with 21843.)

The library has few probate records from Lackawanna, Lehigh, Lycoming, Monroe, Pike, Schuylkill, and Union counties. Some probate records are listed in the Locality Search of the Family History Library Catalog under PENNSYLVANIA - GUARDIAN AND WARD.

A few land, probate, and will records are available on line from Ancestry.com.

Finding Aids
Additional probate record information and sources can be found in the Locality Search of the Family History Library Catalog under:

Pennsylvania- Probate Records Pennsylvania, [COUNTY] - Probate Records