Friday, February 5, 2016

Surname Saturday: John Slatter Sr.'s Probate Page Lists Lots

Literally, hubby's great-grandpa John Slatter Sr's probate records listed lots, that is--vacant lots.

Great-grandpa Slatter was born in Oxfordshire on 31 January, 1838 and died in Cleveland, OH on 12 August, 1901, at the home of his daughter, Mary Slatter Wood.

Here's the probate page I found (thank you, Ancestry). Not only does it identify each of his children and their 1901 whereabouts, it details his so-called estate.

His personal estate consisted of "nothing" according to this document.

But he also owned "2 vacant lots in Warrensville, Ohio" with a value of $100, according to his daughter.

Since Great-grandpa Slatter's son-in-law James Edgar Wood was a home builder, and Warrensville was a convenient drive from the Wood home in Cleveland, did Slatter purchase the lots for his son-in-law to build on?

That's how the Wood family lived year in and year out, building one house after another on spec, and then moving in to finish the details while starting to frame a new house. They moved every year or every other year for quite a long time.

Sometimes documents raise more questions than they answer. In this case, hubby and I are convinced that Great-grandpa bought those lots for his son-in-law as a way to contribute to the welfare of the Wood household, where he was living during his last illness.

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