Follow-Up From Oct Workshop: Answer To WHY Take An Inventory?

Our recent EWGS October workshop featured a presentation on Probate Records by member Susan Beamer. I sent her a follow-up question asking WHY did every little thing have to be listed in an inventory? Wouldn’t and why not the widow just get everything?? Here is her answer: 

 In order to disperse the estate to the heirs, you have to know what's there. Part of that is anything owed the estate (anything the deceased lent--money or otherwise) or any outstanding bills the deceased owed themselves. They collect what is owed.  So the bills are paid first out of what is left of the estate. If things have to be sold to do that, then they are sold. This is especially true when people die without a will--intestate. What is left is then dispersed to the heirs. Most often heirs of those who die intestate aren't wealthy and there are enough of them (often enough) that everything sellable is sold, pooled and divided by the number of heirs, given as cash.

When people die with a will, the will sets out what heirs get. Wills are most common when there is real property and larger items. With a will, unless the deceased was in debt, you often don't know what is in the estate. They will say the wife can have use of what is left after debts are paid for the rest of her life, or the other--she can have what she brought to the marriage, meaning she basically gets nothing from his estate only what she brought in. Then after the wife dies, typically one of the kids gets the rest of the estate.

I've not seen where the widow's items are sold. If it is his estate, all those things of hers are really his. Then, if he was in debt when he died, they will sell all they can to pay the debt, even things the widow would need. Unless she can prove some items she brought with her to the marriage (dowry), but then again, depending on the time and laws, once they marry, all of her things are his. There probably are exceptions for the last couple hundred years, but not many.

Free Access to ArkivDigital this Weekend, November 8-9

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National Archives Day in Sweden is on the second Saturday of November each year. The regional archives are open to the public offering lectures, exhibitions and archive tours.

ArkivDigital, your online digital archive with more than 50 million images, will be hosting an “open house” this week-end. We invite all who are interested in their Swedish history free access to our entire online historical archive on Saturday and Sunday (November 8-9, 2014).

Take the opportunity to discover the wealth of records in the archive including the church books, estate inventories, passenger ship manifests, military records, court records and many other types of records.

All current subscriptions will be extended two days because of the two free days.

What You Missed: The September 2007 General Meeting

One of the things promised on this blog was that it would be a way that members could be sure to catch up with what happened at meetings they may have had to miss.

On Saturday, September 8th, our first genealogy meeting of the 2007 - 2008 year was attended by several members of the Washington State Genealogical Society, who met with our board in anticipation of the 2009 WSGS State Conference, to be held in Spokane in September of that year. They included Steve Baylor, President; Laura Pemberton Starr, Conference Liaison; and Frank McLean of the Pioneer Certificates Committee. These guests remained after the general meeting to field questions and provide comments to any interested EWGS members in regard to the upcoming conference.

Our presenter for the general meeting was EWGS Past President Susan Beamer, who spoke on "A Sure Thing: Death & Taxes." Susan is very knowledgeable on probate and tax records, not only through her own genealogical research, but from a career standpoint as well, having previously worked in the Eastern Regional Branch of the Washington State Archives in Cheney. First, she carefully explained the types of each record, where they can be found, and what they generally contain. Then she demonstrated the wealth of information that is available to researchers in probate and tax records by using her own ancestors' records in her PowerPoint presentation. Susan is very fortunate to have Eastern Washington ancestors, and I admit I was envious at how easy it must be to access local records!

Some of the things I learned:

• You should search for a probate record in a span of ten or more years after the death of an individual, because sometimes it took that long before a will was probated.
• Sometimes the entire probate record is only the will, because it was easily probated (proved).
• The bondsmen, guardians, friends, and administrators named in the probate records are nearly always related or in-laws to the deceased individual.
• Tax records can show names, ages, residences, legal descriptions of property, and school districts (which leads to school records) for taxed individuals.
• Looking at the types of things an ancestor did and didn't own in tax records can be revealing; they can paint a better picture about their lifestyles.

I think you'll agree with me that if you missed this meeting, you missed out! Perhaps you can contact Susan and request a syllabus of her excellent program! I hope you can join us October 6th for the October Workshop, to be held at the Southside Senior Center on 27th & Ray from 9:30 AM to 4:00 PM. Pre-registration must have been completed by September 26th. Our program theme is "Journeys: Tracing the Steps of Our Ancestors," and features Donna Potter Phillips, Lethene Parks, Marvel Miller, Steve Turner, Jeanne Coe, Tammi Rizzuto, Judy Williams, Barbara Brazington and Ruby Simonson McNeill.