My grandparents and great grandparents mostly lived in New York City. 
how could i find a copy of their will?  How long does it take?  How
hard is it?  what info do i need?  I don't even know if they had
wills.
I am particulalry interested in 1915 - 1982 timeframe.

nyma-ga,

The records of wills and estates are maintained by the various county
(borough) courts in NYC.

Presuming your grandparents were Manhattanites, then the appropriate court is:


http://www.courts.state.ny.us/courts/1jd/surrogates/index.shtml
Surrogate's Court
New York County (Manhattan) 
31 Chambers Street
New York, NY 10007


...Serving the estates of individuals who were permanent residents
(domiciliaries) of Manhattan at the time of their death.


The instructions for records searches of wills can be found here:


http://www.courts.state.ny.us/courts/1jd/surrogates/RecordsSearch.pdf
RECORDS SEARCH INFORMATION -- Manhattan Only


Note that it's much cheaper to visit the court in person than to ask
them to do the search for you.


If you need similar information for any other borough, just let me know.


Good Luck!

pafalafa-ga


search strategy -- Google search on [ new york county court wills ]

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Request for Answer Clarification by nyma-ga on 12 Jul 2006 20:01 PDT

sorry - bronx would be the other county... THANK YOU !!!!!!!!!!

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Clarification of Answer by pafalafa-ga on 13 Jul 2006 04:24 PDT

nyma-ga,

Of the five boroughs, only Manhattan and Queens have websites for
their Surrogate Courts:


http://www.courts.state.ny.us/courts/nyc/surrogates/index.shtml


For the Bronx, you'll have to directly contact the Clerk of the Court
for information on accessing old wills:


Surrogate, Bronx County 
Hon. Lee L. Holzman 
12th Judicial District 
851 Grand Concourse 
Bronx, NY 10451 

Diana Cruz 
Chief Clerk 
718-590-4515 

Earnestine Glover 
Deputy Chief Clerk 


It should just be a simple phone call to find out their procedures for
records access.  If you run into any sort of roadblocks, however, let
me know, and I
l'll see if I can find an alternative for you.

Cheers,

paf

Thanks for the answer! Great information!