Research - NY Probate Records

Today's weekly announcement of FamilySearch releases included news of 8 million images added to NY State Probate Records browsable online collection.

Dare I hope that my NYC ancestors would be included?

From NY State Probate Records description on FamilySearch wiki, comes the following details:

"This collection does not include records from metropolitan New York at this time."

"The records are images from probate records in various county Surrogate Courts in New York. The content of the probate records and their year range vary by county. Most records end in the 1920s with some indexes continuing to the year 1971."

Since list of 9 currently-available counties is headed by Albany, where one of my aunts died in 1970, I clicked on to see what years were available: records only to 1887, and index only to 1959.

Research - 1855 NY census

This week's announcements from FamilySearch included the following:

U.S., New York, State Census, 1855	-		New indexed records and images collection.

Looking at database description, was excited to see Kings and New York counties
included, where I could look for the following Deckers and Koesters:

    - Decker, Margaretha, widowed, with Henry age 12, George age 7, John age 5

    - Koester, Daniel, in USA yet?, married yet?, before daughter's birth in 1858

Was especially hoping to find Margaretha and her sons, since no trace of between 
1850 and 1870 censuses.  But as with 1860 census, unable to find here either:

    - Could she have remarried, then reverted to Decker surname btw.1860-1870?

    - Could family be living with another and mis-listed under that other surname?

    - Could there be a spelling variation not covered in my wildcard searches?

    - Could there be indexing or transcription errors or omissions?  

    - Could family be living in another state? - vs. family lore in NYC whole lives?

Was also unable to locate Daniel Koester:
    - Perhaps he hasn't yet arrived in America, or New York?
    - Could there be a spelling variation not covered in my wildcard searches?
    - Could there be indexing or transcription errors or omissions?

Will need to search again further, soon!