----- Original Message ----- 
  From: cristy 
  To: Paul Drake 
  Sent: Tuesday, July 05, 2005 5:52 PM
  Subject: HI Paul, question please?

  Hi Paul,

  Can you tell me what the difference between a "will" and a "probate" record 
  is?

  christy
*********
Hi, Cristy.  Good question, but an easy one to start a debate....  hahaha  While the word "probat" is Latin for proof of anything, and was very early so used, the term later came to be used as meaning "proof of a will".  Still later and now, those former expressions have fallen into the black hole of obsolete expressions.

Now we consider all matters of estates, testate or intestate, and the actions of courts, administrators and executors, as "probate matters."  So, better present-day usage dictates that one should not use the word "probate" except as a modifier - an adjective - for such as the noun "Court", for the noun "record", or for the noun "judge".  It is NOT now a verb, and we do NOT any longer "probate wills" or "probate estates".

So, while we may let or submit a will to probate, or bring it to the attention of a probate court for probate proceedings under a probate judge, rather than use that word in any of its forms as a verb, we now say we bring about the execution of a will (of its terms).  Paul



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