District Court (Third District : Salt Lake County) Probate minutes, i 1884-1973.

In 1884, the Salt Lake County Probate Court began to keep probate minutes in addition to ESTATE REGISTERS. The minute books record the daily proceedings in probate and guardianship matters in Salt Lake County. Adoption cases are also recorded. Occasionally, around the turn of the century, incorporation proceedings and corporate dissolutions are included. Each day has records of several cases, and an individual case will span multiple dates.

The minutes are brief entries recording times set, notifications made, and various orders. Orders in estate cases pertain to appointing executors, appointing appraisers, approving bonds of administrators, making family allowances, selling property, etc. In the case of a contested estate, the minutes will name the contestants and their attorneys and state who was sworn and examined but not detail his or her testimony. Details in regard to the will, the amount of the estate, or the distribution are not usually recorded; those details are found in theSALT LAKE COUNTY PROBATE RECORD BOOKS.

Orders in guardianship cases relate to issuance of letters of guardianship, sale of property held in trust, release of guardians, etc. Adoption cases include mention of hearings held, names of parents or social service agency and prospective parents examined, and orders of adoption. Occasionally changes of name cases are noted, listing the old and new names for each petition. More information on each case is recorded in the PROBATE RECORD BOOKS.

With statehood in 1896, the probate courts were abolished and the Third District Court Probate Division in and for Salt Lake County assumed jurisdiction over Salt Lake County probate and guardianship matters. Entries were continued in the same volumes. For a brief period, the probate judge refused to step down, so from January 17, 1896 to February 4, 1896, the probate court and the district court heard the same cases, with the same clerk keeping the minutes of each in the same volume, volume F. OnFebruary 5, 1896, the Supreme Court ruled that the probate court no longer existed and that therefore the judge no longer had any authority; the ruling is recorded on page 266.

The minute books span the period from 1884 to 1971. According to district court personnel, the keeping of formal minute books was abandoned in the late 1970s.