Probate document question

[Cormac]

I just found a probate document for a relative that died unexpectedly and without leaving a last will and testament. A brother petitioned the court to be appointed administrator of his late brother's estate. Two other brothers were acting as sureties. The court action was dated 15 Dec 1917.

My question concerns the last sentence of the document. It reads as follows;

[Donald W. Moore]

Re: Probate document question

I've never seen the wording "adjustment day" in a probate document. However, the administrator, in most probate courts, was required to return an account to the court, showing the disposition of the estate. Whatever "adjustment day" means, you should look for those accounting records. They can sometimes provide genealogical information.

[Cormac]

Re: Probate document question

I asked the lady that runs the genealogy website, "The Legal Genealogist" about this and she wrote a huge post,

[kmgenealogy]

Re: Probate document question

Wow, lucky you! Even without going to the courthouse, the Legal Genealogist came up with some wonderful online documents for you. I also appreciated her suggestions on how to find such documents at FamilySearch.

[Cormac]

Re: Probate document question

>Wow, lucky you!

You can say that again and again! Because of her legal training and extensive genealogical experience, she knew of places and dates in those records that I didn't think of and wouldn't have looked at.

When I sent her my question about

[B Jansen]

Re: Probate document question

Slightly relatedly, I found an 1866 newspaper article describing what has to be one of my ancestors as a witness in a court case. Since he's Irish <curses, shaking fist in the air> we can't get any good, reliable information about him so I'm hoping <fingers crossed> that we'll be able to find documents of the court case (ideally with his specific town of birth).

Some early county court records were moved to the local university library (which doesn't have them) and the others to the local historical center (no immediate email response from them today).

This thread gave me the idea to look for the very old court records. We'll see.

[Cormac]

Re: Probate document question

Hey, that's great for you!

One piece of advice. When you look at the probate records, the names at the very front of the volume are the index. The index of names that appear in the rest of the book. I've enclosed an example of what I mean.

[B Jansen]

Re: Probate document question

Hey, that's great for you!

One piece of advice. When you look at the probate records, the names at the very front of the volume are the index. The index of names that appear in the rest of the book. I've enclosed an example of what I mean.

Thanks, but it's not looking promising. The UC Archives library doesn't have them, nor does the Cincinnati Museum Center (Historical Society). They directed me to the Cincinnati Law Library which doesn't have them and directed me to the University of Cincinnati Law Library which doesn't have them either.

It's *possible* that the Clerk of Courts still has them, but as they explained, they've had four courthouse fires since 1866, and they don't have time to do genealogical research. They did invite me to go exploring in their basement (which I've done in other counties), but since I have't lived there in many years and no plans to go back, well, we'll see if someone can go.

[kmgenealogy]

Re: Probate document question

Brad, Did you check on FamilySearch.org? Go to the Legal Genealogist's site to see how she found all the info for Cormac (see #1 in this thread for the link). FamilySearch.org has a lot of Probate records. You can't search by name but there are other parameters you can search to get down to a reasonable browsing level. Still takes lots of time but don't think much more than if you did it in person.