Franklin County Probate Records

After attending a Family History Symposium in my area, I learned that I might need to investigate probate records. The instructor further recommend that when I contact the County Court House that I ask for probate records on a particular person rather than their wills. If a person had a no will in the probate records, the court house will not give you any information though they may have something of interest to you. If you ask for the probate on said individual, you'll not only receive a will (if there was one) but further records for your research.

With that in mind, I did not order the Franklin County, Ohio, 1803-1865 will index or the Will records, 1805-1918 ; Index, 1805-1905 that are available through the FamilySearch.org catalog. Instead I ordered Indexto probate records, v. 1-2, 1805-1932.

I had the following individuals to search.

Index to Probate 1805-1932
Name	Dates	Found in Index
Joseph Geiszler	1836-1863	no
Conrad Grener	1822-1899	no
Conrad Grener	1853-1905	no
Henry Joseph Geiszler	1859-1931	no
Maggie Hoppe Geiszler	1861-1921	yes
Charles Gordon	1801-1873	no
Jane Fickle Gordon	1803-1865	no
Margaret Rebb Gabel	1839-1911	yes
William Talbot Peak	1868-1931	no
Agnes Anderson	1884-1920	no
Samuel Curtis Brown	1821-1900	no
Martha Gorden Brown	1827-1901	no
James Brown	1795-1859	no
Michael Billman	1832-1884	no
Caroline (nee Mack) Billman	1838-1904	no
Christian Christopher Hoppe	1818-1881	no
Heinrich Mack	1811-1868	no
Heinrich Ludwig Mack	1842-1910	no
Anna Margareta Karlsberger	1824-1911	no
George Paul Karlsberger	1825-1912	no
William Lester Long	1849-1925	yes
Sarah Angeline Marvin Long	1855-1931	not in index
Karl Friedirch Puesecker	1808-1886	yes
Johanna Macke (married Puesecker)	1810-1856	no
Karl 'Charles' Puesecker	1835-1915	yes
Ludwig Puescker	1844-1905	no
Samuel J Ross	Died bef 1896?	no
Annie M Hoppe Ross	1869-1896	no
Heinrich Schneider	1830-?	maybe?
Andrew Nelson Smith	1855-1933	not in index
Emma Ward Smith	1866-1893	no
Leon Philip Smith	1834-1916	no
Katherine Dague Smith	1832-1859	no
Mary ? Smith	1834-1889	no
Orlando Smith	1865-1928	not in index
Clara Gabel Smith	1869-1927	not in index
David Smith	1795-1863	maybe?
Elizabeth Browning smith	1792-1879	no
Mary Claybaugh Townsend	1846-1916	no
William J Townsend	1842-?	no
William Webb	1816-1905	no
Georgina Stares Webb	1840=?	no

As you can see, I have 42 names on this list. If you're going to be ordering films through the Family History Center in Salt Lake City and going to set aside time to go through microfilm reels at the film reader nearest you, you had best have a sizable list of names to research. That's just my opinion.

Results:

In researching this record, I came across five names out of 42 names. The 'not in index' notes are frustrating to me. The film I ordered specifically mentioned that it was through the year 1931. Well the records stopped in 1926. Ugh! Where are the other 6 years?

Before I forget, one thing I noticed was that it was far easier to have the names on my list ordered alphabetically by surname than any other way. Just a tip.While I only found five names in the list, I recognized two other names on my family tree. After checking with my family tree on my laptop, I decided to add these names to my future research. Here's the list:

First	Last	Death
Magdalena	Geyer	1921
Margaret	Gabel	1911
Karl	Puesecker	1886
Charles	Puesecker	1915
Heinrich	Schneider	1875
David	Smith	1865
William	Long	1925

I found another name that seems like I should definitely investigate it. I feel it might have a lead in it.

First	Last	Death
Mary Elizabeth	Karlsberger	1903

Finally, as I was reviewing the records, I felt the need to add a few 'not on my list' names. The majority of these individuals have some variation of the name Geiszler. It's not the most common name around, so I figured a small goose chase might be worth while. I also figured, if I'm already digging around in probate records, it wouldn't hurt to throw in a few random ideas. Who knows what it will turn up.

First	Last	Death
George	Geiger	1869
Christina or Christian	Geisler	1884
John Jacob	Gei*le	1887
Frederick	Geyer	1891
John	Geyer	1893
Charles	Geigele	1897
George	Geigler	1918-1919
George	Gisler	1880
Henry C	Ma*ck	1854
John	Townsend	1890

So the next step? Well, that's what I have to figure out. I need to go back to FamilySearch.org to see if I can order probate records. If not, I need to discover the process for obtaining probate records. I have my top seven as my priority list if things get a little pricey. If things aren't to bad, I can investigate the goose chases.