David, et al: Would you elaborate on the time range of these records? You show that the archived wills range from 1670-1817--how far back do the orphan records go? I once spoke to the Archives about an ancestor who was orphaned in 1778, and as I recall, they said no orphans court existed until a decade or so later, and they therefore had no records to search for that period. As a general comment, while I wouldn't expect to personally find any ancestors in this database, I would think that publishing an index of these records would be valuable. In my experience, orphan ancestors are the hardest to research, for obvious reasons. And as the size of your just-part-of-the-A's list indicates, there was no shortage of orphans in early America. Chris > Date: Sun, 03 Jun 2007 07:37:02 -0600 > From: [email protected] > Subject: [NJ] WARDS & GUARDIANS > To: [email protected] > Message-ID: <[email protected]> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; DelSp="Yes"; > format="flowed" > > Howdy - last week I made mention of my working on another project > involving the extraction of entries in the 13 Calendar of Wills subset > of the NJ Archives volumes, involving 'wards and their guardians'. As > a prelude to providing that material in full, am including here a > portion of what is being accomplished, hoping it will spurn some > interest by the membership in some of the ancestral data which may be > of further help to researchers. This material is only preliminary, > and I will not be able to do any lookups or transcriptions at this > time. Further, the DATABASE is in no way completed, nor is even this > first section - listing of ward's surnames beginning with A. > To view the data properly, please follow the directions included > as, because of the amount of data extracted, and limitations of space, > it was necessary to make changes to form and layout to include as much > useful data as possible. > > I welcome comments! David - [email protected] > >

Chris & NJ List Members - I think, and this is just from memory as am not at my home computer, that one of the earliest dates is abt 1680. Please understand though that while we (collectively) are speaking of orphan's records, there is a distinction that needs to be noted. Since the managing of orphans' property began more earnestly following the Revolution, AND records of wards and guardianship appointments occurred in America as early as abt 1630 here in America, we all tend to lump both situations together. This must not be done, for the two are very different, and it seems to me to be primarily because of the changing laws surrounding children who were to receive property of one sort or another, and the management of estates of the deceased, in general. Each state was different of course, but they seemed all to take hints from each to strengthen their own laws as to the rights of children as pertains to inherited property. And one has to remember that they all drew their laws from England, and the governours had most of the power. One must not consider these children as orphans alone, for some of the entries I've seen indicate that their parents were still living, but guardians needed to be appointed to handle property left by a grandparent or some other relative. By 1784, in NJ, it became necessary to charge appointed guardians with specific duties, responsibilities and liabilities in the managing of a child's property. The liability question came into play because of abuse of estates entrusted to administrators or guardians who did not fullfill their intended duty, or even stripped the estate of its value. I believe this is best demonstrated by the remarrying of the widows to men who then became the controller of the estates, and any property. By 1804 again it all changed once more whereby guardians were permitted to sell a legatees property to satisfy the delinquency of an estate. The changing laws in 1804 and it's confirmation and clarifications in 1820, with the establishment and authority of the Orphan's Court in managing estates left to children and the probating of wills associated as such, is well demonstrated in the NJ Archives volumes dealing with the Abstracts of Wills, for the volumes of the series which cover up to 1801 are filled with wards and appointed guardians, whilst after that the remaining volumes have very little. Again, this is only coming from memory at this juncture, as am just back to work after a lengthy illness, and not recovered to where I can cite facts as well as I'd like. Nor am I well enough to devote as much energy to completing this bit of extracting, but as my health improves, so will my output. Am happy to see there is some interest, and as I said, will get the material out as am able to complete each alphabetical letter. For those of you who may be interested, other extraction projects are planned or have been started - 1) PREACHERS & TEACHERS 2)SOLDIERS & SAILORS - are ones which come to mind right off. As well, I plan to produce a master list of entries from all the volumes, in a single line of data, so folks can see better name patterns or county/location patterns. I hope to include enough data so that readers can tell the difference between a written will, a nuncupative will (oral), someone who died intestate (without a will), or any other entry. Although there does exist lists like this, for me who doesn't have them, such a database would enable me to find entries falling into a specific time period, or even a region, and the volume in which I can find the material. That project is way down the line, but with the assistance of the typist I've hired, perhaps the useable data we can extract and transcribe will come to you all more often. Have a nice day, ALL! David - [email protected] ---------------------------------------------------------------- This message was sent using IMP, the Internet Messaging Program.

Just sending "rest well" and "heal before you jump back into work" messages to David. You are so valuable, we have to remind you that your health is most important right now. All of us can wait until you are recuperated. Take the time you need to really recover. Blessings and strength, Pat On Jun 4, 2007, at 6:23 PM, [email protected] wrote: > Chris & NJ List Members - I think, and this is just from memory as am > not at my home computer, that one of the earliest dates is abt 1680. > Please understand though that while we (collectively) are speaking of > orphan's records, there is a distinction that needs to be noted. > Since the managing of orphans' property began more earnestly > following the Revolution, AND records of wards and guardianship > appointments occurred in America as early as abt 1630 here in America, > we all tend to lump both situations together. This must not be done, > for the two are very different, and it seems to me to be primarily > because of the changing laws surrounding children who were to receive > property of one sort or another, and the management of estates of the > deceased, in general. > Each state was different of course, but they seemed all to take > hints from each to strengthen their own laws as to the rights of > children as pertains to inherited property. And one has to remember > that they all drew their laws from England, and the governours had > most of the power. > One must not consider these children as orphans alone, for some of > the entries I've seen indicate that their parents were still living, > but guardians needed to be appointed to handle property left by a > grandparent or some other relative. > By 1784, in NJ, it became necessary to charge appointed guardians > with specific duties, responsibilities and liabilities in the managing > of a child's property. The liability question came into play because > of abuse of estates entrusted to administrators or guardians who did > not fullfill their intended duty, or even stripped the estate of its > value. I believe this is best demonstrated by the remarrying of the > widows to men who then became the controller of the estates, and any > property. > By 1804 again it all changed once more whereby guardians were > permitted to sell a legatees property to satisfy the delinquency of an > estate. > The changing laws in 1804 and it's confirmation and > clarifications in 1820, with the establishment and authority of the > Orphan's Court in managing estates left to children and the probating > of wills associated as such, is well demonstrated in the NJ Archives > volumes dealing with the Abstracts of Wills, for the volumes of the > series which cover up to 1801 are filled with wards and appointed > guardians, whilst after that the remaining volumes have very little. > Again, this is only coming from memory at this juncture, as am > just back to work after a lengthy illness, and not recovered to where > I can cite facts as well as I'd like. Nor am I well enough to devote > as much energy to completing this bit of extracting, but as my health > improves, so will my output. > Am happy to see there is some interest, and as I said, will get > the material out as am able to complete each alphabetical letter. > For those of you who may be interested, other extraction projects > are planned or have been started - 1) PREACHERS & TEACHERS > 2)SOLDIERS & SAILORS - are ones which come to mind right off. As > well, I plan to produce a master list of entries from all the volumes, > in a single line of data, so folks can see better name patterns or > county/location patterns. I hope to include enough data so that > readers can tell the difference between a written will, a nuncupative > will (oral), someone who died intestate (without a will), or any other > entry. Although there does exist lists like this, for me who doesn't > have them, such a database would enable me to find entries falling > into a specific time period, or even a region, and the volume in which > I can find the material. That project is way down the line, but with > the assistance of the typist I've hired, perhaps the useable data we > can extract and transcribe will come to you all more often. > Have a nice day, ALL! David - [email protected] > > ---------------------------------------------------------------- > This message was sent using IMP, the Internet Messaging Program. > > > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to NJ- > [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes > in the subject and the body of the message >