Description

This volume is the twenty-third in a series devoted to presenting a transcription of the surviving serial manuscript records for the town of Wilmington, Essex County, New York, in the High Peaks region of the Adirondack Mountains. The Clerk's Office, at the Essex County, New York Courthouse, houses wills, guardianships, and dowers in bound volumes, and also probate loose papers, all before 1947. Dower papers are quite rare, occurring in only two cases. The authors have abstracted wills and guardianships; but for dowers and probate packets they have fully transcribed all surviving documents. The transcripts retain all words and names exactly as contained in the documents. Despite the fact that only a few people had an estate in probate; most, if not all, male members of the Wilmington community do appear somewhere in the documents. Not only are they mentioned as kin and heirs-at-law; but they also appear as creditors, debtors, witnesses, Justices of the Peace, buyers of goods and property at estate sales, etc. Who dug an ancestor's grave? Who carved his/her monument? The final settlement of accounts by the estate's administrator might contain this information. If your ancestors owed debts, you might find the promissory note or the original doctor's or store's ledgers included in the file. Inventory taken of the estate will provide a fascinating glimpse into your ancestor's material culture. Finally, since the authors have transcribed all surviving documents in a probate packet, a window is provided into the historical process of probate. A full name index adds to the value of this work.