Digest of the Early Connecticut Probate Records. in Three Volumes. Volume I: Hartford District, 1635-1700

Based on records of the General Court of the Colony of Connecticut, on records of the Particular Court, and ultimately on probate records of the Hartford County Court, these three impeccably edited volumes cover the wills, inventories, distributions of estates, and court records of the men and women who settled in that fecund district of Connecticut embracing Hartford, Wethersfield, and Windsor. Officially established in 1666, the Hartford probate district at one time or another covered no fewer than 40 towns. Residents of those towns had their wills proved in Hartford, and this work contains not only accurate transcriptions of those wills, but transcriptions of all related documents, including administration records, inventories of estates, records of estate distributions, and associated court records. In total, some 30,000 persons are named in the wills and associated records. At the beginning of Volume I there is an indispensable list of probate districts and towns showing the districts in which the towns are located. There is likewise a list of towns with their corresponding probate districts. Each volume has an index to estates and one to names. Nothing has been left to chance, and the scholarly care lavished on the work is apparent on every page.