I accidentally jumped down a rabbit hole while researching the Green Men of Maryland Babbs. I clicked on a record that I thought might be one of them but instead was teleported into the Lions of the Sea lineage of descendants of Peter Babb (1-5).

The record was a handwritten last will & testament. So, I decided to capture it while I was there. Well one thing led to another, and I now have over 200 Pages of estate records on various members of the Babb families of Essex County.

I plan to cover them in alphabetical order, which happens to be the opposite of the way I discovered them after having landed on the last record initially.

We start with Addie Frances Babb whose original guardianship record is dated 13-16 Jul 1877. The record’s use the word Probate, which typically refers to a deceased person’s estate, but that is a misnomer.

Addie was just 16 years, 7.5 months old at the time her guardianship started. In that time she lost both her parents to become an orphan. Her Uncle George Lafayette Babb assumed guardianship, but he too died by 03 Dec of the same year, just a month shy of her 17th birthday. At that time James W. Allen takes on the role and sees her through to her 21st birthday and the guardianship ends shortly afterwards.

She is next found in 1886 at the age of 25 serving on a planning committee, and in 1888 she marries Luther Sutton Ellis. They move about 21 miles NW to North Andover in another part of Essex County. They continue to maintain contact with relatives and friends over the years and on 26 Jul 1917, she passes away after a lengthy illness of about 4 years, leaving her husband and daughter Mildred B. Babb behind.

There are additional probate records in this county that I’ll cover separately. Some appear to be related, but so as not to distract too much from my train of thought, I’ll handle them as I’m able.