Wills and Estate Records - Ontario

Prior to 1858, wills were probated by either the provincial Probate Court or the local Surrogate Courts. The Probate Court dealt with larger estates having property valued over £5, and also those with holdings in more than one County or District. The Surrogate Courts dealt with smaller estates and those holding property in a single County or District. In 1858, these responsibilities were merged, and the Probate Court was abolished. Currently Ontario has Surrogate Court records from 1858-1970 available to the public. Please be aware that there are many types of files for Estates some of which are: administration, guardianship, probated wills and more.

Online

Archives of Ontario has an excellent pathfinder for Estate records from 1793-1970. Surrey Libraries can borrow microfilms from Archives of Ontario. Please use this site as a starting point. There are several surname indexes which are an easy search for your deceased family member. This site will reference to various microfilm numbers, which our Family History Department may already have. Please ask a staff member for further assistance.

In some cases, probated wills were associated to the land records. If your deceased person owned land at the time of his death, you can check Ontario Land Property Records Portal to see if his or her will has stored within the land records.

There are many steps to this process, but in order to begin, you must know the land description of the deceased person. The next steps are to go into OnLand and check the historical books, and then the Abstract Parcel Register. There will be a notation in the far-left column noting “will” and then followed by the deceased person’s name. If the name is located, contact OnLand and provide all the details from the OnLand record and request the will. Note, you may have to employ a professional researcher who has to rights to research within the Land Registry Offices in Ontario.

Microfilm

As stated above, our Family History Department holds many of the Archives of Ontario Microfilms that relate to Estate records. Please check our book Canadian Family History Resources online or in print at Cloverdale Branch for specific details on what particular microfilms we have. Estate records are found in Chapter 8.