I would think most people did not have wills.  They just did not have much to leave and most of them just handed it over to family, it seems, without involving the courts. If you look at the number of wills on familysearch.org compared to the population of NYC, including Brooklyn, the latter vastly outnumbers the former. I searched two gt gt grandfathers who I know owned real estate but found no wills. My guess is that it was a simpler time as well where you could do things like that, unlike today.Virginia   From: MICHAEL CARNER via <[email protected]>   Thanks for the link to this site, but I had no luck finding my great-grandfather on thesite. I'm wondering if in the era of the early 1900s, if people didn't bother with a will,especially if they were blue collar folks. My great grandfather ran a bar; I don't evenknow if he owned it or just worked there.  He died in 1904, leaving a wife and adultchildren; what was the likelihood that folks of his stature would write a will? Nancy Carner     

If they had no will and there was property, there would be probate records. On Mon, Apr 13, 2015 at 7:17 PM, VLB via <[email protected]> wrote: > I would think most people did not have wills. They just did not have much > to leave and most of them just handed it over to family, it seems, without > involving the courts. If you look at the number of wills on > familysearch.org compared to the population of NYC, including Brooklyn, > the latter vastly outnumbers the former. > I searched two gt gt grandfathers who I know owned real estate but found > no wills. > My guess is that it was a simpler time as well where you could do things > like that, unlike today.Virginia > From: MICHAEL CARNER via <[email protected]> > > Thanks for the link to this site, but I had no luck finding my > great-grandfather on thesite. I'm wondering if in the era of the early > 1900s, if people didn't bother with a will,especially if they were blue > collar folks. My great grandfather ran a bar; I don't evenknow if he owned > it or just worked there. He died in 1904, leaving a wife and > adultchildren; what was the likelihood that folks of his stature would > write a will? > > Nancy Carner > > > > > > ------------------------------- > 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

In 1900 the population of Brooklyn was 1,166,582 New York, Kings County Estate Files, 1866-1923 contain Browse through 1,610,840 images To me that does not support your comment I would think most people did not have wills. -----Original Message----- From: VLB via <[email protected]> To: MICHAEL CARNER <[email protected]>; Joyce Presnall <[email protected]>; nyc-roots <[email protected]>; nyc-roots <[email protected]> Sent: Mon, Apr 13, 2015 10:19 pm Subject: Re: [NYC-ROOTS] New York County Wills at familysearch.org arranged differently I would think most people did not have wills. They just did not have much to leave and most of them just handed it over to family, it seems, without involving the courts. If you look at the number of wills on familysearch.org compared to the population of NYC, including Brooklyn, the latter vastly outnumbers the former. I searched two gt gt grandfathers who I know owned real estate but found no wills. My guess is that it was a simpler time as well where you could do things like that, unlike today.Virginia From: MICHAEL CARNER via <[email protected]> Thanks for the link to this site, but I had no luck finding my great-grandfather on thesite. I'm wondering if in the era of the early 1900s, if people didn't bother with a will,especially if they were blue collar folks. My great grandfather ran a bar; I don't evenknow if he owned it or just worked there. He died in 1904, leaving a wife and adultchildren; what was the likelihood that folks of his stature would write a will? Nancy Carner ------------------------------- 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