Early in my research, when I did not know any better, I just assumed my female ancestor who died in Linn County, Iowa, in 1867 left no probate. Her husband had died in 1861 in Indiana and she left that state for Iowa shortly after his death.
Most of her children were already in Linn County, Iowa. Her moving there made sense. She would have been approximately sixty-five years old at the time of her move and I just assumed that she moved in with her children and would have had no estate to probate, no land records, etc.
Melinda provide me wrong.
She bought ten or so acres in Iowa and had a home built on it. She owned the property when she died. There’s a wonderful probate for her which lists all her children. There are land and tax records as well. Melinda proved me wrong and she continues to remind me not to assume anything–especially about widows.
A blog post I wrote some time ago has five genealogy lessons from Melinda.
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