Forfarian, the site you cite provides the following: "Probates resealed-
Before 1858, if a person who normally lived in England, Ireland or Wales died owning moveable property in Scotland, the Commissary Court of Edinburgh was responsible for his or her executry, as it was, indeed, for those in the same situation in other parts of the world. From 1858, the procedure of 'probates resealed' was introduced. By this mechanism, the succession to the moveable Scottish property belonging to individuals normally resident in England, Wales or Ireland could be arranged by the English, Welsh or Irish court simply sending a copy of the local grant of probate or letters of administration to the Edinburgh Commissary Court. Up to 1901 these records are included in the ScotlandsPeople website. From 1902 onwards they can be found in the Calendar of Confirmations."
Thus the term "probate" has some standing in Scottish law, but I am grateful for learning the equivalence of "confirmation" to "probate". Probate is universally understood here in the USA where even a former slave could be expected to own a cabin and a garden; or farm animals and implements; and could dispose of them without hindrance by recording a holograph will or, if illiterate, dictating a will with witnesses to his mark of hand. I did find two testaments in this family (one from John Simpson Dunsmore's father-in-law) and downloaded them from Scotland's People. I think the county courthouse in the USA was a bastion of liberty, not of oppresion. It is certainly indispensible to the genealogist. I can track some ancestors to children born in the New England colonies in the 1640's. The records get very dodgy when you cross the Atlantic.
