How would a person go about finding the will of someone who died in 1961?
Contact the decedent’s attorney or descendants. You might be lucky and they still have it. I would not expect the probate court to retain a 53 year old document.
The factual answer is most likely you are SOL.
On the contrary, I would expect the will to be on file somewhere, most likely in the county where the will was filed (usually where the person was living when he or she died).
Contrary to popular belief local governments do not retain every record that was generated with them into perpetuity. Birth and death certificates, sure, but not everything else.
If you live in the United States, a county (or similar jurisdiction) probate court in most states. In Texas, its the basic county court. It really depends entirely on the state. Every state is a little different.
Also, the LDS Church has extensive resources, and they often photocopy such records (a fraction of these are on familysearch.org and uploaded on sites like ancestry.com). The Mormons have family research centers in most cities, which largely operate separately from their religious services, and are open to researchers. If they don’t have it, they will track it down.
I agree, but it depends entirely on how a particular state and county is run.
Contact the court that handles probate (different states call it different names–in New York, it is Surrogate’s Court, while Texas calls it the Probate Clerk and in Kansas it is now the District Court) in the city/county jurisdiction where s/he died. In the United States, probate records are usually retained permanently because they document land ownership, although they may have been transferred to microfilm or abstracted, and courthouse fires, etc., can cause record loss. In what state/county did they die?
You may also need to check other jurisdictions where the decedent owned property. Be aware, however, that not everybody left an estate requiring probate.
Wills and probate records are definitely kept whenever possible. Some have been lost over time due to war, fire, weather, etc., but they aren’t generally thrown out. I’ve seen copies of wills of ancestors going back to the 1600s in the US.
Birth and death certificates are a relatively new concept (unless you mean church records).
To the OP: Step 1. Find out where they died and/or were buried. Step 2. Contact the county there to see how to look up probate records. If you find the right place, you’ll pay a few bucks and have a copy of the will. They are used to having these inquiries, in some cases going back 100-200 years. 1961 isn’t going to be a problem.
Places like findagrave, the SS death index, etc., can help track down candidate counties.
Thanks for all the great help here.
The person died in Washington DC and is buried in Prince George’s County MD.
Start with the DC Probate Clerk’s office (assuming they lived in DC). If they lived in PG county and merely died in a DC hospital, the probate would have been filed first in the county of residence, so start with the Prince George’s Register of Wills.
ETA: While some records have been lost to disasters, DC probate records are on file back to 1801, and Maryland records go back to colonial days. 1961 should not be a problem.
Where a person died doesn’t mean a whole lot, especially if it was in a hospital.
Here is a link that will show many of the wills that are on file with Maryland. It’s done my county. You might be able to get one sent directly to you, but it will be costly. The Maryland Archives might also have a copy on file. I don’t know about PG county, but Frederick county was all digitized by Family Search and available online now.
Thanks again for all the help. DC probate court is sending me a copy of the will.
What did you want it for (out of curiosity)?
My wife needs it – she’s a historian and writing a biography.
Huh. Neat. Best of luck to her.
I was going to suggest Time Travel, but you seem to have it well in hand. Carry on.