March 31, 2023
Would you rather find out that your ancestor died testate or intestate? The answer you give probably depends on whether you know the difference between the terms. Both terms refer to probate records, but their meaning is quite different.
Someone who wrote a will is said to die testate. Genealogists love to find ancestors who died testate. Wills were (and are) written by people who want to have a say in what happens to their belonging after their death. Dying testate can provide descendants with all sorts of information.
It can help you determine the ancestor’s financial standing. Someone who left each of ten children a plantation of two hundred acres was clearly wealthier than someone who left his children ten acres to divide among them.
A will can also give clues to family relationships. Not every child or other heir is required to be named in a will. Some children may be omitted entirely. Other times, one child receives much more than the rest. In earlier times, daughters often did not receive land but did receive household goods and/or money.
My great grandfather had seven living children when he wrote his will. He left the eldest son the bulk of his property, but he did provide for each of his other children to receive parcels of land as well as money. Five of the six received approximately the same amount of land and money. My grandfather, however, was given significantly less than the rest of his siblings.
Family stories maintained that my grandfather had supported his mother when his parents divorced. The other six siblings supported the father. My great grandfather’s will lends credence to this story.
In contrast to someone who dies testate, someone who dies intestate did not make a will. Whatever the person left still needs to be divided so a court appoints an administrator to oversee that division.
The administrator takes an inventory of the person’s belongings and makes a list of his heirs. These inventories and lists of heirs can provide all kinds of genealogical information. When someone dies testate, some children may be omitted from a will. When someone dies intestate, an administrator must locate all the heirs of a decedent as well as their addresses. If an heir has died, his or her children will need to be identified.
Not all ancestors will have left property that needs to be probated. Approximately forty percent of our ancestors will have had property that needed to be dispersed. Most women will not have left any property since historically women were not considered to have anything in their own names.
It’s still worth looking for probate records for all ancestors because the rewards when you find them are so great. Both those who died testate and wrote a will and those who died intestate and did not write a will left records that can answer all kinds of genealogical questions.
When it comes to whether I would prefer an ancestor who died testate or one who died intestate, it’s a difficult choice. I like both, but I get a special thrill when I see that someone died intestate. Unlike wills, which may omit some heirs, intestate probates will include every heir, whether the decedent wanted him included or not.
Carol Stetser
Researcher