How To Find a Will in Public Records in New York Such as Court and Online Databases

If you want to find a will in public records, the first thing to know is that copies of wills are not available online, at least not in New York. To research and find a will you visit the records room of the Surrogate’s Court, and the court does not accept email requests for research assistance. If you are out of state, you can hire a lawyer in the county where the decedent lived to get the records you need.

Who Is Allowed to See a Will

It used to be possible to find anyone’s will by going to the courthouse of the county where the decedent resided. Since about 2012 that practice has stopped. Today you cannot see a decedent’s will unless you can show the court that you are related to the person who died or are named in the will. The Surrogate’s Court restricts access to estate records according to the requester’s relationship to the estate.

The restriction protects the privacy of estate matters while still letting people with a legitimate interest see the file.

When a Will Becomes a Public Record

Since 1787, wills and other documents relating to a decedent’s estate in New York have been filed in the Surrogate’s Court of the county where the decedent last resided. But a will can be found there only after the person has died and someone has filed it. The fact that a person made a will does not mean you will be able to find it: wills are not registered while the testator is alive, presumably because a person can change their will at any time.

Online Databases

Online databases are useful for beginning a search. The most extensive free digitized resource is Family Search (https://www.familysearch.org), where you can search historical records by name, life event, location or collection. For New York probate records the best approach is to browse all public collections and then search “New York” in the collection title; the results include New York births, christenings, deaths, burials, marriages, naturalization, passenger arrival and probate records. Family Search’s probate records span 1629 to 1971.

Although the will documents themselves are not online, several other tools can help you locate an estate filing.

Print, Microfilm and Historical Collections

The New York Public Library catalog is an excellent resource for New York probate records from 1888 to 1948. Those records are on microfilm, so you must visit the library in person to research a document. For older estates, the New York State Archives holds historical Surrogate’s Court records for many counties; the New York Public Library’s Milstein Division has extensive genealogy resources including probate records; local historical societies often keep indexes of local estate filings; Family History Centers, operated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, provide access to extensive genealogical records; and some county clerk offices retain older records transferred from the Surrogate’s Court.

Recent Estates: Finding the Right Surrogate’s Court

For anything more recent, go to the Surrogate’s Court of the county where the decedent last resided. If you are not sure which county that was, request the death certificate from the Office of Vital Records; it shows the decedent’s address at death, and that address determines the county for probate purposes. For New York City decedents the court is one of the five borough Surrogate’s Courts.

If the decedent had a will, the probate was filed in that court. If the decedent had no will there was no probate, but a petition for letters of administration may have been filed. An estate with less than $50,000 of personal property is a small estate handled by voluntary administration. Files for people who died without a will are kept in the court’s no-will file. Knowing which of these applies narrows the search once you reach the court.

An estate file typically contains the petition for probate or administration; the will, if any, with any codicils and prior wills; the death certificate; citations and waivers from interested parties; the letters testamentary or letters of administration; affidavits of due execution and other supporting documents; any objections and the court’s rulings on them; accountings filed during administration; the final decree closing the estate; and the correspondence between the parties and the court. For an active estate the file can be substantial, and reviewing it gives a complete picture of how the estate was administered.

If the Will Cannot Be Located

Sometimes a will is known to have existed but cannot be found in any record. Check the decedent’s home thoroughly, including safe deposit boxes, file cabinets, fireproof safes and desk drawers; contact any attorneys who may have drafted the will or hold records; ask the decedent’s accountant, financial advisor or trust officer; check bank safe deposit boxes, which may require court authorization to open; ask at family lawyers’ offices; check the Surrogate’s Court for a pre-death filing, since New York allows a will to be filed with the court during the testator’s lifetime; and search the decedent’s email and electronic records for references to the will. Our page on how to find out if someone has a will goes through these steps in more detail.

If the original cannot be found but its contents are known, it may be possible to probate the lost will. The proponent must produce clear and convincing evidence of due execution, proof of the will’s contents (typically through copies, the attorney’s records or testimony), evidence that the testator did not revoke it, and evidence of where the will was last known to be and how it was lost, all in order to overcome the presumption that a lost will was revoked. Lost-will proceedings are harder than ordinary probates because each element must be proved by evidence rather than by the document itself. See our page on probating a copy of a will.

What a Will Can Tell You

Beyond establishing who inherits, a will is a useful record in its own right. Wills often identify family relationships documented nowhere else, which makes them valuable in genealogy and in revealing previously unknown relatives or bequests. They open a window into the family life, possessions and values of an earlier era. They may establish title to property or other rights relevant to a current dispute, and they help establish basis and ownership for tax purposes.

Talk to Us

Whether the Surrogate’s Court will let you view a confidential file depends on your standing in the case. If you are a potential distributee, beneficiary or heir, you have the right to view the estate records, and if you are out of state we can obtain them for you in the counties where we practice. Call 212-233-1233 or write to [email protected].