Source:Connecticut, United States. Connecticut, Wills and Probate Records, 1609-1999

Citing This Source

As with all Ancestry sources, it is nice to provide an abstract of the information gleaned from the source so the citation is still useful for those users who do not have an Ancestry account.

This source is essentially a searchable index that points to, and provides access to, Family Search images. A few extra steps can make the citation suitable for finding the image in both Ancestry and Family Search. (Note that, unfortunately, at the current time, only some Family Search films are viewable online, other are restricted to viewing at Family History Centers.)

Recorded documents

For recorded documents, the citation should specify the Probate District, the volume and the page number. Unfortunately the Ancestry header does not show the probate district, but it does show the volume, which at least, if not found, can be a clue that to a user that they are not searching the right probate district. The probate district is often the city a person died in, but as they were frequently split and reorganized, this is dependent on the date. For example, a probate in Killingworth, before Middlesex County is formed in 1785, will be found in the Guilford probate district of New Haven county. A probate in Middletown before 1785 will be in the Middletown district of Hartford County.

Once the probate district is known, enter it into the place field of the Family Search Catalog search. Enter probate into subject and hit return. The volume number and page number can be used to select which film to view, and to find the correct image. Most probate volumes have an index of sorts at the beginning, so if you just know the year probate was opened, you can locate the appropriate volume and search the index.

Example: Source:New London, New London, Connecticut, United States. Probate Records, 1675-1916 is the source for the New London Probate District, giving the citation: Connecticut. Probate Court (New London District). Probate records, 1675-1916. (Salt Lake City, Utah: Genealogical Society of Utah, 1982).

Source:Stonington, Stonington, New London, Connecticut, United States. Probate Records, 1767-1933 is the Stonington Probate District giving the citation: Connecticut. Probate Court (Stonington District). Probate records, 1767-1933. (Salt Lake City, Utah: Genealogical Society of Utah, 1947, 1981).

Probate files

The original probate papers are stored in packets, filmed as part of Source:Connecticut, United States. Probate Files Collection, Early to 1880. They are included in the Ancestry index and Ancestry users can view the contents of the packets, but on family search, the packets are only viewable at Family History Centers, at the current time.

The information that is useful in the citation is the probate district (suggested as good practice, but optional since not needed to locate the image), the range of names identifying the film it was taken from, and the image number of the packet title page (image numbers are the same in Ancestry as in Family Search, since they are viewing the same image set).

The packet title page will provide the name of the probate district. The Ancestry header will show a name range, such as "Terry, S. - Tracy, Charles". The name range serves as an alias for the film number where the image is found. Go to the catalog page for the Probate Files Collection here. This lists the films for all the probate districts containing probate files. Enter ctrl-F (the command to search the text on the page), enter the name range or some part of it as the search string. The record that is found will give the film number it corresponds to (7629867 for the example name string). View the film and enter the image number which should take you to the start of the packet.

Ancestry links

Generally Ancestry links are not very useful. First, direct access requires an expensive membership. Second, even when one uses an institutional copy of Ancestry (i.e., at a Family History Center or public library) the link doesn't work because the institutional version has a different domain, and they still takes you to a page that asks for a user to login or subscribe.

It may be possible that the Ancestry link may identify where the image is, but the sample size tested is too small and somewhat mixed to be confident in that statement. For example, www.ancestry.com/interactive/9049/007627885_01096?pid=2388689#?imageId=007627885_01099 is known to correspond to film 7627885, image 1096. www.ancestry.com/interactive/9049/007628387_00671pid=1340222#?imageId=007628387_00557 corresponds to film 7628387, image 557. Given a film number, it may be entered in the Family Search Catalog search as the Film/Fiche Number to see the catalog page describing that film (or the set of films it belongs to).