Genealogical Gems Found in Probate Records & Dipping Your Toe in Irish Genealogy Research

 The Windham County Genealogy Interest Group held it's most recent meeting on Saturday, June 24, 2023, from 11am to 1pm, as a Zoom only event.

The Windham County (Vt.) Genealogy Interest Group is an informal organization whose members are dedicated to genealogy education, research, and best practices. Meetings are held every other month on Zoom. Many of these sessions were recorded and are available on the WCGIG YouTube Channel, https://bit.ly/WCGIGVIDEO,  which cover topics  as: improving your search results in FamilySearch.org and Ancestry.com; using family tree software; navigating the crowd sourced cemetery database, Find A Grave; using land records for genealogy research;  using AmericanAncestors.org, the  database of the New England Historic Genealogical Society; finding people in the newly released 1950 U.S. Census.

WCGIG is also supported  by Brooks Memorial Library in Brattleboro, Vt. and Rockingham Free Library in Bellows Falls, Vt. with use of their Zoom accounts, publicity, and use of facilities when in person meetings are warranted.

Many useful genealogical gems can be found in probate records. Probate is the legal process of settling the estate of a deceased person.  The records may include wills, inventories of property, guardianships and other documents related to the settlement of an estate. The names of the deceased person’s spouse, children, and other relatives may be included in the records which can help verify relationships in the family tree. Inventories of property can provide insight into a person’s life based on the possessions and assets of an ancestor. Perhaps the possessions give a hint about a person’s occupation or social status.  Witnesses to a will or other probate document may be related to to the deceased or provide other information about them.  Many probate records are available online from FamilySearch or Ancestry, and the databases are the easiest places to start a search.   However, not everything is digitized and research may involve a trip to a state archive, county courthouse or town clerk office. 

Do you have Irish roots and don’t know where to begin research? “Dipping your Toe in Irish Research,” will help get your started in the basic resources for finding your Irish ancestors across the pond. We will explore the online Irish web site at Irish Genealogy.ie, which has many civil and church records; National Library of Ireland, which has Roman Catholic parish registers online up to approximately 1880; RootsIreland.ie with the most extensive Roman Catholic records available; and Griffith's Valuation (1847-1864), which contains  approximately one million individuals who occupied property in Ireland between 1848 and 1864. We will be just “dipping a toe” but it will give you some fundamental tools to search Irish records.

For more information please contact windhamcountygig@gmail.com.