This is for my own personal research :) I am still working on going through a massive probate record of my great great great great great grandfather that I received over the summer. I am puzzled by how long it took for a formal inventory/appraisal to be filed with the court. My ancestor, Joseph Guillaume died in March 1878 in Christian County Illinois, the appraisal of his property according to the date on the documents was done in April 1878 but the appraisal was not filed until March 1879. This seems strange to me.There were allegations years later that the estate had not been handled properly but this issue is not addressed by those later documents. The only possible explanation I could think of was the problems between his wife Catherine and the executor August Cazalet caused the delay- she had refused to turn over some interest bearing notes to him and was issued a citation by the court in September 1878. There are no papers indicating a reason for the delay or that are dated between that citation and the filling of the appraisal. I've never come across an instance in which it took the executor just shy of a year to file the appraisal. Any ideas? Thanks! Kassie

How far did they live from the courthouse? Was it a harsh winter? Sometimes a delay in filing is caused by nothing more than an inability or inconvenience to physically get to the courthouse to file the documents. Michael Hait, CG(sm) michael.hait@hotmail.com http://www.haitfamilyresearch.com "Planting the Seeds" Blog: http://michaelhait.wordpress.com CG and Certified Genealogist are service marks of the Board for Certification of Genealogists, used under license by board certificants after periodic competency evaluation, and the board name is registered in the US Patent & Trademark Office. -----Original Message----- From: Kassie Nelson Sent: Sunday, November 18, 2012 11:10 AM To: TGF Mailing List Subject: [TGF] Probate record question This is for my own personal research :) I am still working on going through a massive probate record of my great great great great great grandfather that I received over the summer. I am puzzled by how long it took for a formal inventory/appraisal to be filed with the court. My ancestor, Joseph Guillaume died in March 1878 in Christian County Illinois, the appraisal of his property according to the date on the documents was done in April 1878 but the appraisal was not filed until March 1879. This seems strange to me.There were allegations years later that the estate had not been handled properly but this issue is not addressed by those later documents. The only possible explanation I could think of was the problems between his wife Catherine and the executor August Cazalet caused the delay- she had refused to turn over some interest bearing notes to him and was issued a citation by the court in September 1878. There are no papers indicating a reason for the delay or that are dated between that citation and the filling of the appraisal. I've never come across an instance in which it took the executor just shy of a year to file the appraisal. Any ideas? Thanks! Kassie The Transitional Genealogists List was created to provide a supportive environment for genealogists to learn best practices as they transition to professional level work. Please respect the kind intentions of this list. ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to TRANSITIONAL-GENEALOGISTS-FORUM-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message