Source:Bristol, Massachusetts, United States. Probate File Papers, 1686-1880

Description

This database was created from digital images contributed to NEHGS by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Archives. The collection contains the records of 29,531 Bristol County probate cases filed between 1686 and 1880. The probate cases include wills, guardianships, administrations, and various other types of probate records except adoptions, which are not public records in Massachusetts. The cases range in length from one to over 1,500 pages, with a total of over 457,000 individual file papers.

These Bristol probate cases were not labeled with offical case numbers, so an index had to be created from the microfilmed file papers. The resulting index is mostly alphabetical. However the file papers were not microfilmed in strict alphabetic order and case numbers were assigned as the cases were examined to create this database. Thus, the statement "mostly alphabetical."

Search Tips

This database supports the following searchable fields:

   First and last name
   Year
   Location
   Case Number

Wild card characters are available for name fields. Helpful symbols to use in your name search include:

   ? to match any single character
   * to match any number of characters 

Only the first page of each case file is searchable. To view other pages in the case, please use the blue arrow buttons in the upper right corner on the image view page