Daily Ancestorinv.
Inv. (also invt.) in probate records means an inventory, the itemized list of a dead person's goods and their value.
Inv. stands for inventory. After a death, neighbors chosen by the court walked through the house, barn and fields and listed what the person owned, with a value for each item. The list was returned to court with the other estate papers.
Inventories are rich sources: they show tools that hint at an occupation, books, furniture, livestock, debts owed and, before 1865 in slave states, enslaved people named as property.
As seen in a recordHeading in a probate file
Inv. of the estate of Robt. Hall, dec'd, taken 3 Mar. 1750
Sources
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Daily Ancestor. "inv.." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/abbreviations/inv. Last checked 2026-10-01.