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From:
Subject: [NJHUNTER] wills post 1910 location
Date: Wed, 19 Feb 2003 16:20:41 EST

In a message dated 2/19/2003 12:02:29 PM Pacific Standard Time,
writes:


>

This person asked where will records are kept for 1910 and later.

Wills are part of probate records and are kepted by the individual county
that handled the probate for the deceased individual. They are not
maintained in a central location. Therefore, you need to determine or know
where your ancestor died to begin your search of the probate records which
will occur after the death of an individual. It can be immediate, or it can
be several months after the death occurred before a probate is filed. In
some cases, a probate may never be filed because there was nothing that the
person owned that warranted a probate estate to be opened.

In addition, some people won't have a will when they die. Their estate then
will become an administration because they died intestate (without a will).
So when checking with the probate court you need to check for either a
probate or an administration file. If you only ask for a will or a probate,
the clerk may not look for an administration, so you need to ask for both to
be checked.

Hope this answers the question about where wills are filed.

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