District of Columbia Probate Records
This entry was originally written by Johni Cerny in Red Book: American State, County, and Town Sources.
Probate Records for the District of Columbia (see District of Columbia Court Records) include proceedings, indexes to wills and administration of estates case files, transcripts of wills, administration case dockets, accounts, inventories and sales of estates, guardianship records, and apprenticeships.
Original wills from 1801 to the present and related probate records may be obtained by writing to the Register of Wills, Rm. 5006, 500 Indiana Ave., N.W., Washington, DC 20001.
Transcripts of wills dated 1810 to 1888, accompanying name indexes, and related probate case records for 1801 to 1878 are located in Record Group 21, National Archives and Records Administration, General Archives Division (NNFG), Washington National Records Center, Suitland, MD 20409. See Homer A. Walker's Historical Court Records of Washington, D.C.: Death Records, 1801'78 (Washington, D.C.: the author, n.d.) for a name index to the Administrative Case Files, Old Series, 1801'78, also in the General Archives Division. Also useful are Mrs. Alexander H. Bell, Abstracts of Wills in the District of Columbia, 1776'1815, 2 vols. (Washington, D.C., 1945'46); Daughters of the American Revolution, E Pluribus Unum Chapter, Transcripts of Probate Records, 1799'1837 (Salt Lake City: Genealogical Society of Utah, 1972); and Record, Abstract of Wills, 4 vols., 1828'37 (Washington, D.C.: Municipal Court, n.d.).
