From German Girls Genealogy (Teresa Steinkamp McMillin & Debra A. Hoffman):
When we researched last month in the Staatsarchiv in Freiburg, we found many examples of will and probate records. These are the same types of records we are accustomed to using in US research. The difference in German research, is you usually have to do a bit more digging to find them.
The will example I’ll show you today is for Franz Josef Huber of Hesselbach written in 1865. As far as I know, he is not related to me. To find this example, I went through the online finding aids for the Amtsgericht (district court) of Oberkirch, which is in archival group B30.
The will is in archival group B30/2. Look at the right-hand side of the image above. I see that group spans 1807–1908. Under the years, it tells me there is a typewritten or printed finding aid. That means I had to go to the archive to see details within this group. If I click on the “Details” link in yellow, I get a bit more information.
By the orange arrow, you see this item contains “Inventuren und Teilungen” which are estate inventories and partitions. This could be probate items like we think, but it could also be marriage contracts and other items documents relating to estates.
When I got to the archive, I read the printed finding aid for B30/2 and found it was a listing of communities within the Oberkirch district. Each community was numbered and one of those was Butschbach, which is where my family lived in the early 1800s. I then requested and read another finding aid specific to Butschbach. That was organized alphabetically by person and handwritten. For each person it indicates the type of record, year, and record number. I found this entry for Franz Josef Huber from 1865 and I ordered his record.
I was presented with a six-page document. He was a widower, his witnesses were identified by name, occupation and residence. His children are named, along with their spouses and residences. At the end are the signatures of the testator and his witnesses.[1]
You see it took a little digging to get to this record, but in the end, it was worth finding this document with so much information.
[1] Oberkirch, Amtsgericht Oberkirch, Grandduchy Baden, Verlassenschaft, Franz Josef Huber, 1865; Staatsarchiv Freiburg, B30/2, Butschbach Nr. 269, http://www.landesarchiv-bw.de/plink/?f=5-7204.
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