Probate Records

              T
Jesse White • Secretary of State and State Archivist
ILLINOIS STATE ARCHIVES
Genealogical Research Series Pamphlet No. 2
HIS PAMPHLET IS THE SECOND IN A SERIES DESIGNED TO ASSIST THE GENEALOGICAL
researcher In using the most pertinent of related federal, state, and local governmental
records in the possession of the Illinois State Archives and its Illinois Regional Archives
Depositories (IRAD) System. The disposition of estates on the county level of government is
the subject of this pamphlet.
PROBATE RECORDS 1772–1970
Historical Background
The Illinois General Assembly granted probate jurisdiction to the clerk of the county
commissioners’ court in 1819. This jurisdiction was subject to review and reversal by the full
commissioners’ court. Probate duties included issuing letters of administration for intestate
(without a will) estates, distributing the estates of individuals who died intestate, recording
all wills and letters, ruling on contested wills, receiving bonds from administrators, paying
witnesses, ordering final distributions, ordering property sales for payments of debts, making
pro rata distributions of assets to creditors, appointing guardians for children under age 14,
approving guardians selected by children age 14 and over, and receiving bonds from those
guardians.
The functions of the probate court were transferred from county commissioners’ court
clerks to county probate courts in 1821. Probate judges were elected by the General
Assembly to lifetime terms. Their duties included those specified in 1819 as well as
bankruptcy and imprisonment for debt cases. Probate justices of the peace were established
in each county beginning in 1837. These justices were selected for four-year terms by the
electorate. Their jurisdictions included those cases in which claims did not exceed $1,000.
Probate justice of the peace proceedings were reported to the circuit courts of their respective
counties, which either approved or rejected them.
The 1848 Illinois Constitution moved original jurisdiction in probate matters to the newly
created county courts. County judges were elected to four-year terms. The 1870 Constitution
gave the General Assembly authority to authorize separate probate courts in counties with
populations of 50,000 or more. Legislation enacted in 1953 mandated free standing probate
courts for counties with inhabitants exceeding 125,000, while it left it a local option for
those counties with residents numbering between 70,000 and 125,000. By the terms of the
Judicial Amendment of 1962, the functions of both the probate courts and the county courts
were transferred to the circuit courts effective Jan. 1, 1964. Since that date probate cases
have been handled by circuit courts.
Record Contents
Four record series generated by local courts in their probate capacities are the most
useful for the genealogist: Probate Case Files, the Probate Record, Probate Wills, and the
Probate Will Record.
Probate Case Files and the Probate Record
Probate Case Files consist of loose papers that have been filed with the court in relation to
particular decedents. Central documents include property inventories and appraisals, sale
reports, bills and claims filed, and final settlements. Each of these case files concerns a single
estate and the overall arrangement is chronological by the original filing date.
The Probate Record is bound in volumes. The information therein contained largely
replicates that found in the case files. But besides formally recording the documents found in
the files the Probate Record shows how the court acted upon each of those items. Like the
Probate Case Files the Probate Record is arranged chronologically by the original filing date
for each estate.
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Probate Records