Australia, Victoria—Wills and Probate Records, 1880–1998 What takes precedence the Will or Probate?
A typical Affidavit of Executor/Executrix contains dates for both Will and Probate but there is only one field for indexing.
So which year to index?
So far I have indexed the Probate year (year sworn) because it has a matching place - whereas the will year does not.
Also the probate year gives a clue to the death year whereas the will year could relate to any point in a person's life. Therefore the probate year is more useful to family history researchers
I could not find any direction in the Project Instructions
What do people think?
Answers
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You will probably need to provide a share batch so everyone can see what you are seeing and read the instructions. They don't tend to give advice without them.
I think that the date of the will should be used when it is the actual Last Will and Testament and the probate date should be used when the image is an affidavit. We usually are asked to index the date when the event takes place or the document is created or sworn to.
I took out my 10 ft pole and am not working on these. But look forward to hearing what others think.
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I think that the date of the will should be used when it is the actual Last Will and Testament and the probate date should be used when the image is an affidavit. We usually are asked to index the date when the event takes place or the document is created or sworn to.
Yes that is what I have been doing - I was specifically thinking about indexing an Affidavit of Testator/Testatrix where both dates are available. My approach was to use the sworn to date and place as you say but many batches that I review do not.
I took out my 10 ft pole and am not working on these. But look forward to hearing what others think.
You are funny - but I fully understand.
When reviewing these batches I am pretty much reindexing them in many cases. But I am prepared to stick with it ATM because these documents provide so much useful information for researchers.
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I don't understand the 10 ft pole reference............
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@Lisa Kay Horlacher " wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole" is a saying in Australia - probably amongst people of a certain age (not being metric and all). It means that @Melissa S Himes is not going to waste her time with this project.
I am of course assuming that like me Melissa is in Australia.
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I am in Ohio, USA, so it must be the language of a certain age. I don't want hijack your thread, Ontymay, but, it seems like there are only a few of us who are trying to get these things resolved for a project that appears to be stuck in reviewing "limbo" [not progressing for one reason or another]. The first mention of the same problems with this project were posted in May by Barry Martell. Nothing has changed.
This date issue is a problem that isn't addressed in the project instructions for Part A. They do somewhat better in Part B. In Part A, they use the first page of a probate document that says the deceased had a will "bearing the date of 1899" and index 1899. But, on the next example there is a probate date of 1902 on the continuation document. In Part B's example, the individual did not have a will, and the probate date from the continuation image is used. Did they use the incorrect date for a probate document in Part A, or are the dates of wills most important? How would anyone know? If the Will date is the first priority then the field help and example should convey this with a priority list. (i.e., In the event there is no date of a will on a probate document, index the most recent date.) However, if the date the probate document was created and sworn to should be indexed, then the field help should reflect this (i.e., "Please index the date the document was created or sworn to.").
The Will or Probate Place remains an issue in Part B, even though "they" think the examples have been properly corrected. But, using the place of residence "late of" for the deceased and the addresses of the witnesses is not correct according to the field help instructing us not to use residences, but to use the place the document was created and sworn to. Again, on that will, Melborne is the address of the Solicitor and Malvern is the address of the "will creator"(testator) - but where were these people when the will was created and sworn to? What happens when the witnesses have different places written after their names because they don't live in the same town? Why not just use the residence? It is on every will and probate document I have seen so far.
I love indexing and reviewing these wills and worked diligently on another will project from my home state of West Virginia. I transcribed historic wills from Virginia, USA on another site. I have a will and have executed a will. I read about probate in Australia. I don't see a difference in the way wills are written or estates are probated in Australia and the US. I do know that when you search for probate records on the Public Record Site of Victoria, they use Residence and Year of Death in their search engine - not the year of the probate.
https://prov.vic.gov.au/explore-collection/explore-topic/wills-and-probates
I will put my 10 foot pole away once two things get cleared up on this project - the dates and places of the events. I think they will see the project swiftly progress once that happens. But, if the reviewers change those two fields back and forth, resulting in a 25% correction each time, (1st reviewer corrects it, 2nd reviewer changes it all back, 3rd reviewer corrects it, and it moves on to the pile for FamilySearch to review), the needle isn't going to move very quickly.
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