Floyd County Probate Records Scope
Floyd County Probate Court is the local court for probate of wills, administration of estates, adult guardianships and conservatorships, temporary guardianships of minors, marriage licenses, concealed weapons carry permits, and traffic citations issued outside city limits. That mix is important in Floyd County because a person looking for a traffic docket, marriage record, or estate case may all end up using the same Probate Court and the same statewide probate portal.
The court is located at 3 Government Plaza in Rome. Judge Steven R. Burkhalter is the Probate Judge. The captured staff list identifies Lisa Horton as Court Clerk, Kay Casey as Office Supervisor, Tiffany Leming as Estate Clerk, Stacey Siniard for guardianship, Dana Coffey and Haley Lee as traffic clerks, Alicia Valdez as accounting clerk, and Malorie Tillery for marriage and firearms. Staff-specific contact can save time because estate, guardianship, traffic, and marriage questions do not all route to the same desk.
Probate records from 2006 to present are available through Georgia Probate Records for many online modules. Older materials, certified copies, closed files, or case documents that do not appear in the portal should be confirmed with Probate Court. Countywide open-records tools may help with non-case county records, but probate-certified copies should start with the court that maintains the probate file.
Floyd County Probate Terms
Probate filings use terms that are easy to mix up. In Floyd County, these terms matter when reading Georgia Probate Records search results, staff notes, letters issued by the court, and guardianship or estate filings.
- Testator
- The person who made a will.
- Executor
- The person named in a will to carry out estate duties after appointment by the court.
- Intestate
- Dying without a valid will, which can require estate administration instead of probate of a will.
- Guardianship
- A court appointment for care and personal decisions for a minor or incapacitated adult.
- Conservatorship
- A court appointment to manage another person's property or financial affairs.
Georgia handbook notes in the research file distinguish guardianship from conservatorship. Guardianship covers the person; conservatorship covers property. One person can serve in both roles, but conservators may need a surety bond and generally cannot sell, mortgage, transfer, or dispose of ward property without a court order.
Search Floyd County Probate Records
The online search channel for Floyd County probate records is Georgia Probate Records. The portal includes modules for estate information, recorded marriage licenses, traffic dockets, will information, guardianship petitions, marriage application, death information, hearings and traffic calendars, miscellaneous filings, weapons carry applications, petition filing fee calculation, and participating court information.
- Open Georgia Probate Records and choose the module that matches the record type, such as estate, will, guardianship, marriage, or traffic docket.
- Select Floyd in the county field when the module offers a county dropdown.
- Enter the decedent, testator, executor, ward, guardian, party, or date range fields available in that module.
- Review results for case number, party names, county, filing or granted dates, and related court information.
- Contact Floyd County Probate Court for certified copies, documents not shown online, or records with restricted access.
Floyd County Probate Court Contacts
Floyd County has one Probate Court for the county. Use the main office for general probate records, then route specific estate, guardianship, traffic, marriage, or weapons carry questions to the staff contact when the county page identifies one.
Floyd County Probate Court
Judge: Steven R. Burkhalter
3 Government Plaza
Rome, GA 30161
(706) 291-5136
Probate Staff Lines
Estate Clerk Tiffany Leming: (706) 291-5139
Guardianship Stacey Siniard: (706) 314-1856
Traffic Clerks Dana Coffey and Haley Lee: (706) 291-5103 / (706) 233-0060
Accounting Clerk Alicia Valdez: (706) 291-5101
Note: The same Government Plaza courthouse area also houses Superior Court, Magistrate Court, Juvenile Court, the District Attorney, and the Clerk of Superior Court.
Floyd Probate Portal Fields
Georgia Probate Records uses different search fields by module. The estate, will, and guardianship searches are the most relevant for core probate records, while marriage and traffic modules support related Probate Court records.
| Module | Visible Fields | Buttons / Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Estate search | County, deceased first name, deceased last name, deceased start/end date, filed start/end date | Search and Reset |
| Will search | County, testator first/last name, executor first/last name, start/end date | Search and Clear; validation can require a last name or full date range |
| Guardianship search | County, first/last name, filed start/end date, granted start/end date | Observed result columns include case number, ward or minor, guardian, and county |
| Traffic dockets | Traffic module and hearings calendar | Used for citations issued outside city limits |
The portal can locate many records from 2006 forward, but it is not the same as a certified record copy. Use the case number, name, and date fields from the search result when asking the court for a certified document.
Floyd County Probate Filing Fees
The county Probate Court page links to Probate and Guardianship Filing Fees, and the portal includes a petition filing fee calculator. The fetched research did not capture the exact petition amounts, so the safest route is to use the court's current fee resource or calculator before filing. Do not rely on third-party probate fee summaries for Floyd County filing costs.
| Item | Amount / Route |
|---|---|
| Estate petition filing fees | Use Floyd Probate's current fee resource or Georgia Probate Records fee calculator |
| Guardianship or conservatorship filing fees | Use the county-linked Probate and Guardianship Filing Fees resource |
| Marriage license handled by Probate Court | $66 without counseling; $26 with qualifying premarital counseling certification |
| Traffic citations issued outside city limits | Use the Probate traffic channel, EZCourtPay, or traffic clerk numbers for the specific citation |
| Certified probate copies | Confirm current copy and certification cost with Probate Court before ordering |
Fee caution: Probate petition amounts were not captured in the official text fetch, so exact estate and guardianship filing fees should be verified with Floyd Probate Court before filing.
What Floyd Probate Records Show
Estate records may show the decedent's name, filing date, case number, will status, personal representative or executor, heirs or interested parties, notices, orders, inventories, accountings, and final disposition. Will records may identify the testator and executor. Guardianship records may identify the ward or minor, proposed guardian, filing date, granted date, letters issued, and reporting duties.
Georgia handbook material in the research file notes that adult guardians must file Personal Status Reports within 60 days of appointment and then annually within 60 days. Conservators file inventory and asset plans and annual returns. These later filings can be important in a Floyd County probate records search because a case may remain active after appointment if reports, returns, bonds, or court orders are still due.
Marriage, weapons carry, and traffic records are not estate records, but they are part of Floyd Probate Court's local workload. Traffic citations issued outside city limits can appear through probate traffic channels. That routing differs from Rome Municipal Court, which handles city traffic through a separate city payment portal.
Restricted Floyd Probate Records
Not every probate-related file is fully public. Guardianship and conservatorship records can contain medical, financial, and family information. Temporary guardianships of minors involve children. Mental-health material and protected identifiers may be sealed, redacted, or available only to authorized parties. Adoption records should not be treated as open probate or court records.
Georgia's Open Records Act, O.C.G.A. 50-18-70 et seq., starts from public access, but exemptions, court rules, and orders can limit access. Court-case access is also different from general county records. If a probate file is sealed or restricted, the countywide NextRequest open-records portal will not override a court's access limits. Start with Probate Court for case records and ask what proof, order, or party status is required.
Probate employees also cannot give legal advice. For contested estates, title disputes, creditor claims, objections to guardianship, or questions about which petition to file, a lawyer is the proper source. The court can point to forms, staff contacts, fee resources, and records, but it cannot choose a legal strategy for a filer.