I am looking for anyone who might have any information on Jacob Shnell who died in York Co., PA. 1826. The adminstrators of his estate were Henry Schnell and Peter Schnell along with Adam Mosser all of York Co., PA. I am looking for the names of his, Jacob Shnell, children. Can any help me along these lines? I have the papers of his estate, actually his Chattle and such. It is from Windsor Twp., York Co., PA.. I am guessing there was no will as that did not come with the papers I ordered from the York Co. Archives. Is there another place to look for a will? Maybe he didn't own property when he died. I really know nothing and am looking for anything that might help me. Thank you, Jeanette from OH.

Dear Jeanette, You have already have the answer to at least one of your questions. When a person writes a will he appoints an "executor/s" to settle his estate. When a person dies intestate the court appoints an "administrator/s" to settle the estate. So we know your Jacob Schnell died intestate. The court usually appoints someone closely associated with the deceased as administrator. If the deceased is an older man with a family, the administrator is often the wife, a son, or a son-in-law (or any combination of them). If he is a younger man, the administrator may be his father, brother, or brother-in-law. There are always exceptions, but this is generally the case. The probate documents contain many clues as to the property of the deceased. That "chattle and such" is either an inventory of his estate or a list of items sold from the estate (or you may even have both). The inventory won't list real property (i.e., land), but it will detail all the personal property he owned. The inventory will give you a good idea of the size of his estate. How many beds did he own? Were his plates made of china, pewter, or earthenware? Did he own farm equipment? Did they list cattle, cows, and sheep? Does the inventory list any crops like wheat, rye, and flax? The best way to determine if he owned real property (land) is to consult the deed records. If he owned any, you may find deeds where his administrators disposed of his property following his death. Other clues to relationships can be found in the Administrator's Account, which I assume you received. You will find a lot of small distributions, but you may get lucky and find a lists of heirs to whom money was distributed. Sometimes these accounts will show money received from the sale of land. Every piece of paper in a probate file is valuable and worth a thorough review. I highly recommend that anyone doing research invest in at least one basic guide to genealogy. It will help you understand and get the most information out of all those documents you are collecting. "The Researcher's Guide to American Genealogy" by Greenwood is my personal favorite, but there are many such books on the market. Your library probably carries some basic books like this as well. Another alternative is to google "tutorial" (or "lesson") and "probate records." Below is just one site (out of many) I found when doing so: http://www.surnames.com/begin/research_consultant_training/LESSON_9_US_Probate_&_Court_Records.pdf Good luck. Pam ----- Original Message ----- From: "Edward Robison" <ejrob1@sssnet.com> To: "York Co. PA." <PAYORK-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Sunday, February 08, 2009 3:46 PM Subject: [PAYork] Snell / Schnell Genealogy >I am looking for anyone who might have any information on Jacob Shnell who >died in York Co., PA. 1826. The adminstrators of his estate were Henry >Schnell and Peter Schnell along with Adam Mosser all of York Co., PA. > I am looking for the names of his, Jacob Shnell, children. Can any help > me along these lines? I have the papers of his estate, actually his > Chattle and such. It is from Windsor Twp., York Co., PA.. I am guessing > there was no will as that did not come with the papers I ordered from the > York Co. Archives. Is there another place to look for a will? Maybe he > didn't own property when he died. I really know nothing and am looking > for anything that might help me. > Thank you, Jeanette from OH. > > > ********* > Visit the threaded archives of this list: > http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/PAYORK > ********* > Messages posted to the RootsWeb/Ancestry PAYORK Message Board are > gatewayed to this Mailing List. Remember that the author of gatewayed > messages may not be a list subscriber so please reply to gatewayed > messages by clicking on the link and replying on the board. > ************ > Visit the York County, Pennsylvania USGENWEB Project at: > http://www.rootsweb.com/~payork/ > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > PAYORK-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes > in the subject and the body of the message