When working on my brick wall ancestor, I searched probate records. I actually never searched them at all for him because I was always told he was “dirt poor.”<\/p>\n
And there he was in the estate records two times. How can you die twice and have two estates?<\/p>\n
Turns out for the time period in question, insanity cases were filed with the probate and estate records. It was two insanity cases I had located for him, not probate cases. If I had never looked in estate files, I never would have found out information about his insanity hearings.<\/p>\n