Filing systems can vary slightly from one location to another. The researcher should not expect one location to use the exact same filing structure as a nearby location.
A search of the Illinois, Wills and Probate Records, 1772-1999 for the last name of Sartorius in Adams County, Illinois, resulted in three entries for Herman Sartorius in the 1880 era. I was not expecting to find three entries. All appeared to be a set of papers from the actual case file (based on the search results shown in the illustration–“Papers” is usually a good clue the reference is not to one of the various court journals or ledgers).
The first two sets of records directly linked to Herman.
- The 3 July 1883 reference was to his actual probate.
- The 4 May 1886 reference was to a petition to sell his real estate.
In some locations that petition would be in the set of probate papers. Without having looked completely at the records yet, it’s possible that his estate was “closed” and then it was deemed necessary to sell his property. I’m not certain and that’s not the point of this post.
But the third entry?
The third entry did not even link to a case file for a Sartorius at all. The search interface at Ancestry.com indicated the entry was for Herman Sartorius, but the image that was pulled up was for children with the last name Johannes. I could see from the “microfilm” browse view below the record image that there was an image of the cover and some index card. That cover and card indicated that the packet was indeed for the heirs of a man whose last name was Johannes.
I decided to try and see if somehow the “index entry” at Ancestry.com had simply linked to the wrong image. So that I didn’t get lost and so that I browsed both before and after the wrong file, I made a note that the original image linked to was image number 876. 
Sure enough a few images forward on the film was a card entry for “Trintje” Sartorius. There were several different women who could have gone by Trientje Sartorius at some point in their life, either as their maiden name or after their marriage.
Moving to the next image pulled up the case file wrapper for this case and answered my question about which Trientje the card referred.
The card indicated the case file was for Folka Sartorius as the guardian of Trie
ntje Sartorius and others.
The case file was apparently a guardianship for the children of Herman Sartorius and his wife had been appointed their guardian.
Trientje was likely the oldest child for whom a guardian had to be appointed.
Why that guardianship was in 1889 when Herman had his initial probate filed in 1883 and a petition to sell his real estate in 1886 will be the subject of another post.
There’s a story there.
This post is about the fact that an index entry at Ancestry.com that appears to be wrong may only be slightly off.
And it’s also always possible that Ancestry.com missed a case file when it indexed the records that appear in its probate collection. And it’s possible that Ancestry.com does not have all extant probate records for all jurisdictions.
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