Research

Scope and Content Note

This series consists of one volume containing orders and decrees issued by the judge of the Court of Probates. The records relate to cases which fell into the court's appellate and original jurisdiction. They include decrees and orders reversing or sustaining the decision of a surrogate's court, appointing or dismissing a guardian or an administrator, requiring the appearance of an individual before the court, setting the date of a hearing, requiring an administrator to pay money to the court, or to exhibit his accounts, distributing the estate of a decedent, and requiring the sale of a decedent's property.

Each order or decree usually contains the date and place of issuance, the name of the presiding judge, the name of the decedent and/or the title of the case (includes the names of the complainant and defendant). Most orders and decrees also contain the name of the administrator or executor of the estate, and give a detailed account of the actions in a case leading up to the issuance of the order or decree. Often included in the account are the names of heirs and creditors, the description of real property and the amount of money involved in land sales or controversies involving estates.

The volume also contains an index by the name of the decedent and the title of the case. Each entry in the index contains a note indicating the type of subject of the order or decree recorded (e.g. "order for letter," "Decree of affirmation," "hearing," and "order for sale").