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Benton County Missouri

Probate Index

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The following links provide access to the transcription of the Benton County Missouri Probate                           Court File Index. This is an index of the case files, not the files themselves.

                          Each line represents a case file. The first column shows the original page number of the
                          handwritten index book in the courthouse. The second column shows the File Number of the
                          Case. The third column shows the opening date of the file. The fourth column shows the name
                          of the Deceased, the name(s) of the minor children, or other primary persons in the case file.
                          The fifth column shows the name(s) of the Probate Administrators, Executors, Guardians. The
                          last column shows the closing date of the file.

                          In most cases, there will be some blanks in the particular line you are reading. The court clerks
                          responsible for the files often did not fill in every column. In some cases, only the file number
                          and the decedent are filled in.

                          Please note that, like in most transcriptions, I spelled the names as the original Court Clerk
                          spelled them. Their spelling is often incorrect, especially where the person was of a different
                          heritage than the clerk (i.e. German vs. English heritage). There are other comments in the
                          transcription provided by the clerks (like "colored", "insane", "widow", "unsound mind", etc.).
                          Again, I wrote down what appears on the pages without modifying it.

                          For those looking for files for those deceased around the time of the Civil War, note that very
                          few files were made during the war years and for a few years after the war. Benton County
                          residents were divided on whether to support the Union or the Confederacy, tensions were
                          high, and government business seemed to stop until the war was ended. The probate files were
                          just not resolved during this time.

                          Lastly, the microfilm I used to transcribe the index was very poor. Most of the pages are grossly
                          underexposed, and nearly impossible to read. I used the darkest manual mode to copy the
                          pages, and still it was very faint. Some of the entries during the 1850's are too faint to read.
                          Sorry, I've done my best.

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Surnames Beginning with:

A	B	C	D	E
F	G	H	I	J
K	L	M	N	O
P	Q	R	S	T
U	V	W	X	Y-Z

Or view a single text file with all the file entries (about 291K) by clicking here.

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		Last Updated:  February 14, 2001
		Genealogy Tree Graphics - © EvaAnne Weil 1998
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