Is That Estate Squabble in the Newspaper?

If probate records suggest there was some fighting over your relative’s estate, consider looking for mention of it in the local newspaper. What’s in the newspaper may simply be printed gossip (sometimes they do that), but it could provide a little more personal insight into your relatives’ lives.

If full text searches of newspapers are not available and manual searching of newspapers is the only option, consider searching newspapers for times when the case was being heard in court. Filing dates, motion dates, decree dates, and other dates of legal activity will be noted in the probate papers or journals and may help pin down a search time frame.