Build Your Family Tree (eBook)

A Guide For Canadians With Local And Global Roots

Lynne Butler (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2022 | EPUB Version of 1st Edition
248 Seiten
Self-Counsel Press (Verlag)
978-1-77040-536-3 (ISBN)

Infos

Take your geneaology research to the next level by completing your ancestral story with historical will and probate records.

Often, when you research your family tree, you can find only basic facts about ancestors, such as birth, marriage, and death dates. Sometimes, you can figure out a bit more from these records such as their religion, occupation, and names of some other family members. While all of these facts are crucial to your research, they do not paint much of a picture of your family members as people.

For those who want to dig deeper and really get to know their ancestors, Build Your Family Tree explains how a will or probate record can offer a much more robust image of lives lived and legacies left.

Wills are underused in genealogy research. This may be because many family genealogists use primarily online sources for research and most wills are not found online; it could also be because the documents are usually in old, unfamiliar, handwritten script and are not easy to read. With a little work, you could uncover some surprises or a treasure trove of information.

Even genealogy enthusiasts who are willing to look for wills may not fully appreciate just how useful probate and related records can be. In this book you will find an explanation of what sorts of probate records exist and where to find them. You will find definitions of the terminology used in probate records, including latin words and phrases and legal terms that are common to this type of resource.

Once you know what is in a physical archive and how to view those records, you are able to take your information about your ancestors to a new level. The story of your family could be different than you imagined. Are you ready to find out how?

Inhalt

Introduction
-A rich source of info
-Find new info as well as confirm facts/guesses
-Beyond the basic birth, marriage, death dates
-Helps fill in a robust picture of an individual
-Gives you new paths to explore

What kind of information can you to find in wills?
-Names of children
-Surnames of married daughters
-Names of son’s spouses
-Other relationships: grandchildren
-Other relationships: siblings, nieces, and nephews
-Adopted (formally and informally) children
-Step-children
-The deceased’s religion (Leads to parish, church records)
-Occupations
oEsquire
oGentleman
-Clues about wealth, occupation, hobbies
-Birth places/immigration
-Family properties

Other hints in wills:
-Name of executor
-Names of witnesses
-Date and place of signing
-Groups/affiliations (Masons, guilds, churches, professional associations, volunteer groups, service/veterans groups)

Women’s wills
-Married Women’s Property Act
-Husband’s name and occupation

What can we find in probate records?
-Stories in applications (can be very detailed explanations of family arrangements)
-Names, addresses, relationships
-Inventories
oIndication of wealth
oName and location of property
oPersonal possessions provide clues



What are the various types of probate/administration and why does this matter?
-Probate of will
-Administration where there is no will (especially good for finding details of when various family members passed away)
-Latin abbreviations
-Legal seals

What resources about wills and probate are on different sites?
-The “big” sites (ancestry, familysearch, rootsweb, find-a-grave, etc)

Going beyond the big genealogy sites to find wills, death and family info
-Canada records
-Provincial resources
oVital stats
oLocal histories
-Historic sites re special groups, e.g. Acadians, war brides, veterans, etc
-Family name websites
-Fonds/correspondence from public figures or collectors
-Military and service records
-Town/city archives
-School/university archives and yearbooks
-Newspapers – legal notices
-Newspapers – local articles, announcements, social columns,
-Obituaries
-Law case reports
-Land records/maps
-Prison records
-Charitable organizations (particularly records of donations from estates)

Researching archives in person
-Tools (notebook, family tree chart, camera/phone)
-Bring pencils not pens
-May find photos

Books about the geographic area, the deceased’s type of work, events such as labour movement or suffrage, etc

Searching current court records in Canada
-How modern courts are structured and which level deals with probate
-Search methods for wills records by province

Search tips
-Various spellings of names, places
-Phonetic spellings
-Deciphering old, handwritten documents
-View original (or image of original) rather than transcript
-Start broad, then narrow it down

Terminology used in wills and probate records
-Testate/intestate
-Heirs/children
-Devise/bequest/legacy
-Imprimus
-Messuage
-Executor/executrix
-Testator/testatrix
-Per stirpes
-Issue
-Relic
-Real property vs personal property

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 15.10.2022
• Reihe/Serie: Reference Series
• Verlagsort: Vancouver
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Schulbuch / Wörterbuch ► Lexikon / Chroniken
• Schlagworte: FAM058000 FAMILY & RELATIONSHIPS / Family History & Genealogy
• ISBN-10: 1-77040-536-4 / 1770405364
• ISBN-13: 978-1-77040-536-3 / 9781770405363