Big Winner!!! Will of Matthias Trimmer (1722-1793) of Roxbury, New Jersey

Like many of my geneablogging colleagues, I have been rummaging through the Ancestry collection of Wills and Probates.  Today I found something I've always hoped to find - the probate records of Matthias Trimmer (1722-1793) of Roxbury, Morris County, New Jersey.

I knew that he had left a will, and I knew some of the details of his heirs, from the Calendar of Wills, 1791-1795, which is on Ancestry.com in the New Jersey, Abstract of Wills, 1670-1817 database.  

Here's the top of the page for Matthias Trimmer's will, which was all I had before last week:

At the bottom of the abstract above, the record was identified as Lib. 33, p. 326, and also as File 831N.

In the New Jersey, Wills and Probates, 1656-1999 database on Ancestry.com, I put Matthias Trimmer in the search fields and there were matches:

The third one was for Matthias Trimmer who died in 1793, and I clicked on his link:

There are 8 pages in this file, and 7 of them are "Will Papers."  That sounds good to me!

I clicked on the green "View" link to go to the first document of the eight (which had the File number 831 on it), and reviewed all of the pages.  The third page was the start of the will:

A careful reading of this three page will verified what was abstracted in the Calendar of Wills.

This will of Matthias Trimmer was important to me because it identified his daughter "Sofya Abel" as the wife of John Auble (yes, I know, the spelling is different!).  They are my 4th great-grandparents, and Matthias and his wife, Anna Martha (Nachbar) Trimmer, are my fifth great-grandparents.  

Here is a source citation for Matthias Trimmer's probate record in the Ancestry database:

New Jersey, Surrogates Court, Record of Wills, 1740-1900, 1n-8426n, Morris County Wills 772n-885n, File 831n (images 435-442 of 868), Matthias Trimmer, 1793; "New Jersey, Wills and Probate Records, 1656-1999," digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed 7 September 2015); citing original data from New Jersey County, District and Probate Courts.

I feel like a BIG WINNER today, because this record for Matthias Trimmer is only one of TWENTY probate files I have captured so far from this database for my New Jersey ancestors.  It should keep me in Amanuensis Monday posts for about six months! 

I just saved a lot of time searching a number of microfilms at the Salt Lake City Family History Library because these records are on microfilm there, and my plan was to mine them the next visit to the FHL.  Now I can devote time to other items on my to-do list.

Have you searched for probate records for your ancestors in New Jersey yet? 

What state should I look in next?

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