Pennsylvania Probate Records

United States Pennsylvania  Probate Records

Record Synopsis
Probate is the “court procedure by which a will is proved to be valid or invalid” and encompasses “all matters and proceedings pertaining to the administration of estates, guardianships, etc.” Various types of records are created throughout the probate process. These may include, wills, bonds, petitions, accounts, inventories, administrations, orders, decrees, and distributions. These documents are extremely valuable to genealogists and should not be neglected. In many instances, they are the only known source of relevant information such as the decedent’s date of death, names of his or her spouse, children, parents, siblings, in-laws, neighbors, associates, relatives, and their places of residence. They may also include information about adoption or guardianship of minor children and dependents. For further information about the probate process, types of probate records, analyzing probate records, and to access a glossary of probate terms, see United States Probate Records.

History
Probates have been recorded on a county level 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:

Repositories
Pennsylvania State Archives 350 North St. Harrisburg, PA 17120-0090

Historical Society of Pennsylvania 1300 Locust St. Philadelphia, PA 19107-5699

Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh

The Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania 215 S. Broad St. Phildelphia, PA 19107-5325

Western Pennsylvania Genealogical Society 400 Forbes Ave. Pittsburgh, PA 15213-4080

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

The records of the orphans' 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 1980s.

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.

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.

National
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

Websites
A wiki article describing an online collection is found at:

Pennsylvania Probate Records (FamilySearch Historical Records)