>Remember probate files usually contain alot more information than the will >itself. Just think of how complicated our legal system is. This was >defintely true years ago as well. Many people died without wills >(intestate). The probate files would then provide the information of the >heirs and the estate. After 1830, or so, NY state implemented a more rigid probate notification process. You should be able to find paperwork indicating that all named heirs were notified and addresses should be available. Given the times, a city and/or county might suffice as an address. Intestate probates seem to contain more names because even if there were children presumed to be the heirs, the deceased's siblings were, I think the term is, at-law heirs and had(?) to be notified. Useful in either case for tracking where relatives might have moved to. And while we sometimes look at will abstracts, the underlying wills and the resulting paperwork are more useful. I'll use a will abstract, because it's easy and convenient, to build a family group, but if that family is important to me I'll write myself a to-do note to look at the will and probate when I get a chance. Abstracts are sometimes inaccurate because, without understanding of the family, the abstracter may miss references that a more familiar researcher would understand. (My all time favorite was a son named Johnettortin in the abstract - in the difficult to read will it was sons John&Martin.) Not finding a will in the abstracts can be a gold mine if you take the further step to find out if there was an intestate probate. If there was, there is usually more information in an intestate probate package than you will find in a will abstract or the full packet of will papers. In either case, a probate contains all kinds of neat stuff - bills due, inventories (useful for determining profession - lots of blacksmith tools, probably a blacksmith), disbursements of funds, etc. If you know there was a death in a particular area, but no will or intestate probate, the deceased may have had so little that a formal proceeding was avoided. Or that you may need to check land records to see if the deceased put his/her affairs in order years ago with transfers of property. Jim