Description: This course will cover wills and the probate process, both for testate and intestate estates. Besides lectures, there will be in-class exercises, and instructor-commented homework assignments.

Prerequisites: Some skill in using the FamilySearch catalog.

Optional books: These books are optional, but are great books for your genealogy library. Each have chapters pertaining specifically to court and estate records.

Greenwood, Val D. The Researcher’s Guide to American Genealogy. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2000.

Rose, Christine. Courthouse Research for Family Historians: Your Guide to Genealogical Treasures. San Jose, California: CR Publications, 2004. 

Szucs, Loretto Dennis and Sandra Hargreaves Luebking, editors. The Source: A Guidebook to American Genealogy. Third edition. Salt Lake City, Utah: Ancestry, Inc., 2006. This book can be found online at https://wiki.rootsweb.com/wiki/index.php/The_Source:_A_Guidebook_to_American_Genealogy, and the chapter on court records at https://wiki.rootsweb.com/wiki/index.php/Overview_of_Court_Records.

Course Outline
(Subject to Change)

Session 1:

• Introductions
• Lecture: Introduction to Records that Document Death
• Lecture: Terms Used in Probate & the Law
• In-Class Exercise
• Break
• Lecture: Locating Probate Records at FamilySearch
• Homework Assignment

Session 2:

• Review of Homework #1
• Lecture: Probate Process for Testate Estates
• In-class exercise
• Break
• Lecture: Probate Process for Intestate Estates, Part 1
• In-class exercise
• Homework Assignment

Session 3:

• Review of Homework
• Lecture: Probate Process for Intestate Estates, Part 2
• In-class exercise:
• Break
• Lecture: Guardianships
• Homework Assignment

Session 4:

• Review of Homework
• Student projects
• Break
• Student projects