Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Share Something You Learned from a Probate File or Will That You Wouldn't Have Otherwise Known about

It's amazing what you can learn from probate files, isn't it?  I definitely have a couple of good stories for this week's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun from Randy Seaver.

Come on, everybody, join in and accept the mission and execute it with precision.

1.  Today's challenge is "Share something you learned from a probate file or will that you wouldn't have otherwise known about."

2.  Tell us about your probate or will discovery on your own blog post, in a comment here, or on your Facebook page.  Be sure to leave a link to your report in a comment on this post.

[Thank you to Linda Stufflebean for suggesting this topic!]

So I'm posting a day late.  It's still the Saturday Night challenge, just being reported on Sunday.

Two of the more interesting things I have learned from probate files:

* My grandaunt told me the wrong given and married names of her father's sister.  I used to have the names she told me in my family tree program as a comment, but I can't find it since having upgraded Family Tree Maker.  When I obtained her father's (my great-grandfather's) probate file, I learned she was wrong and that the sister's name was actually Sore (Mekler) Dubiner.  In fairness to my grandaunt, she never met her aunt and I asked her about this several decades after her aunt had died, plus I don't know if my grandaunt ever met any of her cousins.

* When I finally had the complete probate file for my ex's father (which ran to almost 600 pages!!), in the list of heirs I discovered the married name and address of my ex's half-sister.  Even though I had the file more than 20 years after the probate had closed, she was living at the same address, so I was able to meet her and learn more about her.  She even lent me her wedding photo album so I could scan all the photos, which I shared on my blog for a Wedding Wednesday post in 2019.