San Francisco Probate 1893

ccr1107

I'm trying to locate the will filled for Mary Moore. The SF Examiner posted a news article on Oct 31st, 1893 stating a will was filed for Mary Moore and gave some info on the beneficiaries. Based on what I know, she passed away on Oct 26th, so the window for when it was filed was short. I'm wondering if I could find the probate record or a copy of the will. Anyone have ideas on where to look? I've come up empty-handed. Greatly appreciated.

Ashlee C.

Probate records are usually kept at the county level. Unfortunately, it looks like the San Francisco County Courthouse and its records were destroyed in an earthquake and fire in 1906. That doesn't necessarily mean the records you are looking for are destroyed. You can check out the collections listed on the FamilySearch Wiki page for San Francisco County. It's also possible that Mary Moore did not die in San Francisco county, so her will was filed in a different county. Check out the Wiki page California Probate Records for other collections to search.

ccr1107

Thank you @Ashlee C.

Unfortuntately, she did die in the City of San Francisco. I'll try looking at the California Probate records to see if anything comes up. Her estate certainly was unique and maybe was large enough to be filed with the state. Her will was filed in 1893, and at that time her assets were listed as $12,000, which I believe were likely dispersed. However, in 1908, her friend reached out to family in Wisconsin (covered in numerous newspaper articles) that her estate was valued at $100,000 between cash and property (maybe forgetten assets in her will) and her family should be the beneficiaries of said estate. This of course did not transpire. I haven't found anything in 1908 or 1909 about this.

JeffreyBryant1

Consider using the FamilySearch Labs Full-Text search experiment.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/full-text

ccr1107

@JeffreyBryant1 Thank you!

JeffreyBryant1

The FamilySearch Labs Full-Text search experiment will allow you to search for beneficiaries that are named. Searching for them rather than Mary Moore might yield fewer hits to search through.