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Court orders have been recorded in large bound volumes for centuries. |
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Each time the court makes a ruling, a summary of that ruling is entered into an order book, in this case a "probate order book". |
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Order book indexes save researchers the countless hours it would take to scan each of several hundred pages to find all of the entries associated with one probate case. |
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It is common to find an index at the front of each order book, but in some locations court clerks have compiled a master index to all of the order books. |
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Probate order books have been created by the local civil court, sometimes called the county court, probate court, orphan's court, circuit court, or chancery court. |
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Most probate records have remained in the custody of the civil court in which they were created and can be obtained from the court clerk. |
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Genealogists have abstracted and indexed probate records for many locations. Copies of those publications and thousand of microfilmed order books can be found at the LDS Family History Library, its local Family History Centers, and in the genealogy collections of private, local, state, and university libraries throughout the country. |
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Always check probate records to see if an ancestor, or anyone who might have been related to the ancestor, left property that had to be disposed of by law! |
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