Middlesex County, Massachusetts Probate Index, 1871-1909 (Part A-K)

When the people of Middlesex County needed to file official documents, they traveled to the county courthouse where officials recorded and notarized their paperwork. This database indexes names of persons in conjunction with the various types of probate records they filed. These records include wills, administrations of wills, change of name documents, commitment papers, sales of estates, permissions to marry, guardianships, adoptions, and partitions. These records are from 1871-1909, however, there is one record for 1870 for a Jessamine Brooks residing in Malden, MA. It is interesting to note that Louisa May Alcott, the author of "Little Women" appears in this database.

In this database, surname variations are indexed under the more familiar family name (e.g. the Homes surname is indexed with the more familiar Holmes). In these cases, one name is given in the database. The following are some of the abbreviations used in this set of records. However, as the book did not provide a key to all of its abbreviations, some abbreviations remain cryptic. Bold letters indicate group or type of document if no names given. Aff. - Affidavit Ariz. - Arizona B.W.I. - British West Indies Cal. - California Can. - Canada Colo. - Colorado Conn. - Connecticut Dak. - Dakota Del. - Delaware Est. - Estate Fl. - Florida Ga. - Georgia Ia. - Iowa Id. - Idaho Ill. - Illinois Ind. - Indiana Inst. - Instrument Ire. - Ireland Jr. - Junior Kan. - Kansas Ky. - Kentucky La. - Louisiana Md. - Maryland Mex. - Mexico Minn. - Minnesota Miss. - Mississippi Mo. - Missouri Mont. - Montana N.C. - North Carolina N.D. - North Dakota N.F. - Newfoundland N.H. - New Hampshire N.S. - Nova Scotia N.Z. - New Zealand Ore. - Oregon P.Q. - Province of Quebec? S.C. - South Carolina S.I. - Sandwich Islands (aka Hawaii) Sr. - Senior Ter. - Territory Tex. - Texas Tr. - Trust/Fourth Va. - Virginia Vt. - Vermont W.I. - West Indies W.Va. - West Virginia Wash. - Washington Wis. - Wisconsin Writ. - Written Wyo. - Wyoming