Making the most of clues from Probate Records and Wills?

Question

The Weekly Topic Challenge enters its sixth week and this week's challenge is:

We currently have 9 questions with the tag probate.

Wills are an especially rich source of names, which is a great way to jumpstart cluster or FAN (friends, associates, neighbors) research. Even something as simple as an entry in the National Probate Index can provide important clues.

Looking back, examples of such questions are:

• What does it mean if a probate index lists a person's record as "Insanity of", instead of "Estate of"?
• What did it mean to come of age in 1684 at Saco (now Maine, USA)?
• Working with browsable images of probate records?
• How to find Indentured Servants in Buffalo, NY or Canada?

We will use a tag of probate for these questions coupled with their asking date so that we know they have been submitted as part of the challenge.

Next week, on 28 Nov, I will tally up the results to see how we did.

We have a few spare challenge topics so I encourage everyone to vote for which we do next at Vote for the next Topic Challenge!

Answer 1

During the week the challenge ran, the following questions about Probate were asked:

• Where to find Will of Giles Chichester from 1820s, probably in Somerset or Guyana?
• Proving Jane Middleton of Somerset only Next of Kin in 1872 to Thomas Chichester who died 1838 in Guyana?

These 2 questions attracted 3 answers (none yet accepted but all very helpful) and this week I want to recognize an answerer who has provided some legal insights (at least to me):