Harold, Thank you for a chance to clarify the information. The re-filed documents were not changed at all. Seems it was more a matter of procedure that unsettled cases filed and pending during the Confederacy were declared “null and void” (per the 1868 report of the settlement of the estate) and had to be re-filed under the new government. I have not actually known where to look for the answer to this. I spent a significant chunk of time googling various combinations of terms to find a lead but anything with the word probate in it, even with an 1865 date, returns hits about how to file modern probates. Arkansas statutes were not digested until 1884 (see William W. Mansfield. A Digest of the Statutes of Arkansas: Embracing All Laws of General Nature in Force at the Close of the Session of the General Assembly of One Thousand Eight Hundred and Eighty-three (n.p.: Mitchell & Bettis, 1884); available on google books). I have used this source several times since I discovered it about a year ago. The upshot is that it often mentions what Act and the date on which statutes were based or revised. However, I can not find anything that mentions how bonds were set. I looked in the chapters Courts of Probate; Official Bonds; and Sureties. None of the other chapter titles seemed relevant and plugging in search terms did not furnish an answer. Best, Thea ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I am a genealogist. I collect people. Thea Walden Baker, M.A. Full House Genealogy Boston University Certificate in Genealogical Research Member, Association of Professional Genealogists Co-editor, Arkansas Family Historian, a publication of the Arkansas Genealogical Society 501-230-3603 From: Harold Henderson Sent: Monday, February 23, 2015 12:36 PM To: Thea Baker Subject: Re: [TGF] $$$Bond for Probate Letters of Administration Thea -- A great question. When they had to re-file letters, was the bond amount changed? Have you checked both Confederate and Reconstruction statutes? Or an Arkansas "manual of probate" or some similar book of practice directed to lawyers or judges? -- Harold Harold Henderson, CG midwestroots.net Finding Ancestors in Fort Wayne: The Genealogist's Unofficial One-Stop Guide to the Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center http://www.midwestroots.net/ Certified Genealogist (SM) No. 1029 Certified Genealogist and CG are proprietary service marks of the Board for Certification of Genealogists® used by the Board to identify its program of genealogical competency evaluation and used under license by the Board’s associates. On Mon, Feb 23, 2015 at 12:23 PM, Thea Baker via <[email protected]> wrote: Could someone help answer a question, please. How was the dollar amount set for bond for letters of administration of an estate determined? Was it determined as a representative fraction percentage of the projected worth of an estate? Or was it determined as a figure a certain number of times greater than the anticipated value of an estate? I hope I am wording those questions clearly enough for everyone to understand. I did not realize I am so ignorant about this matter until now. I am working on a case in which a son applied for Letters of Administration in Sep. 1864 in Arkansas (a Confederate State). He named three persons as security for a $30,000 Bond. The family was well-off but $30,000 bond seems extraordinarily high. I have never seen a bond given for that kind of amount in any probate I have worked. I have land records and have seen the 1857 and 1861 tax rolls, and the 1865 tax roll of the estate. The deceased owned 600 acres. There were no more than six slaves from 1830-1860, as far as I can determine. The 1865 tax roll of the estate indicates three slaves. The 1860 Slave Schedule shows six, so perhaps three had already been sold by the time the estate was assessed. (When would the assessments have been made on the 1865 tax roll?) The 1860 census shows real estate valued at $4000 and personal at $7895. So why such a steep bond? A daughter-in-law of the deceased filed for guardianship of her nine children in Dec. 1864 in which she stated that each child was expected to inherit $400 from the grandfather’s estate. The widow’s widowed mother-in-law (widow of the above deceased) was named as one of the securities for the guardianship. Settlement of the estate was complicated by the ending of the war in 1865 and the son had to re-file for letters of administration in July 1866 as the new government did not recognize the former “so-called Confederacy.” The estate inventory was approved in August 1866 but I did not find that inventory. However, a report of the settlement of the estate was filed in Jan. 1868 in which it was stated that an appraisement made on the first and second days of November 1864 was $8532.70, excluding the slaves which were sold by order of the Court of Probate and that the sale there amounted to $4594.47. Debts paid out of the estate amounted to $1509.43. Debts collected by the estate were $3435.00. An additional interest of $297.25 was collected. The administrator son concludes the report by saying that he “returns herewith the confederate and other worthless treasury notes charged to him in Inventory first made of said estate on 8th Octr 1864 of $235.” Certainly all of these were substantial amounts in 1864 but, again, why the $30,000 bond for administration? Whether made in Confederate or U.S. currency, the amount seems out of relation to the worth of the estate. I looked at other nearby entries for letters of administration and bonds and one was just over $8000 and one for $1150, I think it was. So, back to my question, how was the amount of a bond determined? Many thanks for insight on this. Best, Thea ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I am a genealogist. I collect people. Thea Walden Baker, M.A. Full House Genealogy Boston University Certificate in Genealogical Research Member, Association of Professional Genealogists Co-editor, Arkansas Family Historian, a publication of the Arkansas Genealogical Society 501-230-3603 ------------------------------- 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