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Finding Genealogy Facts in Estate Sale Records
By Kathy Jones-Kristof | January 21, 2008
The most outlandish place I’ve ever found a female ancestor’s name was on an Estate Sale record, known as a Sale Bill. When someone died in the olden, moldy days, all the property not assigned in a will was inventoried, values attached, and then it was all sold to the public. Today that’s called an Estate Sale. In old records, you’ll see it called a Sale Bill. At the sale each item would be listed on the Sale Bill with the amount of money received and the name of the buyer. This list was presented at court and recorded. Oh happy day for genealogists!
Below is part of a Sale Bill from Alleghany Co, VA in 1866.
Sometimes the family had to buy back their own property at these sales. That happened when a man died without a will, called intestate, which is what happened to one of my ancestors. At his Estate Sale, men that I knew to be his sons bought the farming equipment and what I realized must be their own beds. And a woman named Catherine bought the kitchen equipment and, as the Sale Bill states, “her own marriage bed.” That’s how I learned the name of one of my female ancestors. A pretty horrible experience for her, a pretty lucky one for me.
Of course, I mean lucky after spending hours with my nose pressed against the screen of a microfilm machine at the local LDS Family History Center (see my post on Feb 15, 2008 about the Latter Day Saints Library and Family History Centers) reading dozens and dozens of documents. I had looked through everything I could think of and everything everyone else could think of when one day I came across the Sale Bill for my ancestor in a bunch of files where it didn’t even belong. And that lovely document just happened to have that one little extra bit of information that said, “her own marriage bed.”
But I did find it and now I know that the Sale Bills from Estate Sales are one more place to look for facts about my ancestors. And so do you. Until next time, start looking for those Sale Bills. You’ll never know what you’ll find!
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Topics: All Levels of Genealogists, Experienced Genealogists |