Instructions for the use of the
White County Loose Probate Papers 1835 through 1920
The papers represented by this Index contain a wealth of information about White County estates and guardianships. When a file is about an estate it can contain information such as the date of death, the heirs, who was to take care of the estate and the kind and quantity of property included in the estate. If the file is about a guardianship the first name listed is usually the oldest of those covered by the guardianship.
The first column contains the name of the deceased person if it is an estate or the name of one of the wards of the court, if it is a guardianship. The first column is arranged in alphabetical order. The second column contains the name of the administrator if it is about an estate or the name of the guardian if it is a guardianship. When the first column contains the term et al (and others) it means that the guardianship is for more than one person. When there is room in the first column all of the names in the guardianship may be listed. The third column contains the approximate date of death which should have been given on the Letter of Administration (LOA) or the date when the guardianship was enacted. The LOA also sometimes lists the heirs of the estate. If there is no LOA in the file then the date given in the third column should be the earliest date found in the file. Some of the estate papers contain Wills. Often there are inventories of personal property such as livestock, farming implements, spinning wheels etc. Sometimes there will be a list of property contained in an estate sale along with the names of who bought it. Quite often family members buy a big portion of the property. The estate papers often contain legal descriptions of any real estate included and can be used to find the location of where they may have lived.
If you find a file listed that you think may contain some of your ancestors you will need to contact a White County Historical Society volunteer to arrange for them to visit the courthouse to look at the file and make copies of the papers that you want. This will be done by printing out the Look-up Request Form shown ______. The form contains a question about any financial limitations. These files may contain from one piece of paper to as many as 3 full file folders. Copies are 50 cents a page so be sure to answer the question about any financial limitations. After you print out the form, answer all the questions except as directed otherwise and mail the completed form to
James McAllister
% White County Historical Society
P O Box 537,
Searcy, Arkansas 72143
There is a minimum charge of $3 for postage and handling. If you will include this amount with your request and also send an Email to you should receive an Email or a phone call within a few days telling you how much and what type of information is included in the file.
Please note that some of these papers are as much as a hundred sixty years old and vary widely as to legibility. Several members of the White County Historical society have been involved in this sorting project. We had to make decisions about how the names were spelled based on a number of facts. If you do not find the exact spelling that you think represents you ancestor try other spellings. Some files contain several variations of the spelling of names. We have tried to use the spelling given on the LOA if it was legible. A lot of individuals could not read and write and were dependant on the Justice of the Peace or whomever to get the spelling down correctly.
Dated 19 December 2004