Renee, the informtion already given by our members regarding proving wills is well taken. These two added points may help. First, Barron's Law Dictionary give a definition for Probate as "the act of proving that an instrument purporting to be a will was signed and otherwise executed in accordance with legal requirements, and of determining its validity thereby...". And, regarding Louisiana Wills and Testaments, excerpts from Retirement and Estate Planning.com explain two types of Wills in Louisiana, a "Notarial Will executed in the presence of a notary and two witnesses after the testator (the person executing the will) declares that he has read the Will and acknowledges that this instrument is his last will and testament, and is signed and dated on each page and notarized". The second, an "Oligraphic Will (Oligraphic not Holigraphic in LA) is entirely handwritten in the testator's handwriting, signed, and dated by the testator, and does not need to be notarized and requires no witnesses". As I understand it, when probated the handwriting and signature of the testator in an Oligraphic Will has to be verified with previous Testator writings and that person's signature. Hope this helps with Louisiana research. Jerry -------------- Original message from RHB <[email protected]>: -------------- > It helps Very Much > I can now figure out that he died sometime between when he wrote the > will in 1702 and when the will was proved in 1703! > Thanks! > R > > Isabel wrote: > > Renee, > For a will be be "proved", the person who wrote the will has to be dead. This is just a legal term to validate or "prove" that the will was indeed written by the deceased. Holographic wills are valid in Arkansas, but this may be something that is not allowed in other states or may have been allowed in other time periods but are no longer permitted. Depending on the time period and the size of the city, you may find the actual date of death in the local newspaper. Hopefully, the newspaper will have been microfilmed. I have used this method to get exact dates in Georgia and Ala. I would assume that Maryland would have death notices listed in the major city newspapers of the time. Sometimes I just found that "Mary Smith died at her home on Tues. inst". Weekly newspapers have > the date of the paper, so you just have to figure out the date for Tues. > > > > Another clue: I have found Kentucky marriages listed in the Nashville, TN > newspaper. Many people from TN moved on to KY, so it was a common practice to > publish Ky information in the area where the people had lived before. Migration > pattern are important in genealogy. Look for the largest city newspaper in the > MD area where your ancestor lived. You might just luck out. > > In Georgia I was able to not only find out the date of death but the cause. I > was at a dead end on one of Wayne's ancestors. He just disappeared. Knowing that > he had a brother who had a gold mine in Dalonega, Ga. I went to Dalonega to > research. It turns out that besides owning the Pigeon Roost mining Company, > Milton Gathright owned the paper in Dalonega. I went to the library and find a > nice family write up on Milton's dead brother, who died after being kicked by a > horse on his homestead in rural Ga. Newspapers can be my gold mine many of > times. Yes, they are time consuming because most are not indexed. > > Hope this helps you, > > Isabel > > > > The productivity of our Degruy list depends upon generosity in sharing family > research. This is a "discussion" list. Individual messages cannot be assumed to > be "fact." All data should be verified. > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in > the subject and the body of the message