Constance asked:
From: Constance J.
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Monday, September 12, 2005 10:06 AM
Subject: Estate inventories

Hi Paul,
I've gotten estate inventories, but then I've been unable to get others.  Do
they always have estate inventories?  I've gotten wills and then could not
find an inventory.
****
Hi, Ms. Constance. If the death was intestate, unless the court had
determined that it should be a "no asset" administration because the
belongings of the decedent were minute or of very little value and so not
worth the court costs and expenses to the heirs, then it is 99% sure that an
inventory was taken in any of the colonies.  Your problem is that not all
those have survived the centuries.

In testate deaths, though after the mid-18th Century if all the legatees
agreed, occasionally inventories were not done in VA , NC, SC, etc.  The
same likelihood is there, and your problem is that the paperwork in the file
is simply long gone.

You might have noticed that very often while nothing else remains of the
original paperwork in many estates, the inventories and also the listing of
sums rec'd for items sold at public sale, were quite usully kept by the
clerks, etc., thereby revealing the importance of those listings in the
minds of all.

I have also found that many Sheriffs' offices in old counties have a wealth
of loose papers, no small number of which are the product of the sherriffs
serving of summons and warrants on folks.  As with inventories and many
other "papers" once needed, the officers of govt. thought that some SHOULD
be kept for many years, (thankfully for genealogists).
Paul   :-)

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