The volumes in the final decrees subseries include mostly final decrees, although some other orders and decrees issued by the probate court may be present. The volumes in the miscellaneous orders subseries comprise a variety of documents created as actions were taken by the court, including final decrees. In most instances in the final decrees subseries, entire volumes have been microfilmed; occasionally, however, only sections containing final decrees in volumes of otherwise nonarchival records and wills have been microfilmed. In the miscellaneous orders subseries, two volumes have been filmed in their entirety and all of the pages except those containing wills have been filmed in a third volume; the pages in the folder were excised from a volume that also included wills.

Many of the final decrees volumes and the miscellaneous orders volumes and folder include personal name indexes, primarily to names of decedents. Indexes that include citations to pages containing nonarchival documents and/or wills that were not microfilmed are identified as such on the microfilm.

Final decrees of distribution record data on a decedent's estate and its distribution to his or her heirs and/or legatees. They generally include the following information: the name of the decedent; the date of the court hearing; the name of the attorney representing the estate; a statement that all required legal and administrative procedures have been carried out (early volumes may give the name and date of the publication containing the notice of the court hearing); the decedent's date of death and residence and whether he/she died testate or intestate (with or without a will); itemizations of the major personal property and of the homestead and/or other real property to be distributed; the names of the heirs and/or legatees and their relationship to the decedent; the terms of the distribution of the itemized personal and real property among the heirs/legatees, sometimes including excerpts or quotations from the decedent's will; and the date of the decree.

Some volumes may also include several other types of final decrees, recorded intermittently throughout the volume or in separate sections. Final decrees (summary proceedings) document the distribution of less complicated estates, in which each heir often is given a designated fractional portion of the decedent's real and/or personal property. The summary proceedings give much the same information as the decrees for more complicated estates; however, they tend to merely list the heirs who are entitled to portions of the estate, rather than itemizing property and its distribution.

Final decrees volumes for ca. 1900-1910 include many decrees for Ojibwe Indians living on or near the White Earth Indian Reservation.