View Full Version : Where there's a will...
Forty years ago, a friend I made at a family history conference explained how she had inspected the wills for an entire village to extract references to her family.
Now that I am retired and have the time to do this, I have been working through Wiltshire wills with amazing results. I am almost certain that I can take yet another branch of my family back beyond the Civil War.
I've always found wills the most amazing resource, and looking at communities gives a different slant on families as it's showing support networks - friends, work colleagues etc.
What are your experiences?
ElizabethHerts
18-10-20, 08:49
Phoenix, I am a will addict!
I often transcribe 10 to 20 wills a week, mainly for my Cornwall OPC parish page. When I took it over, there were probably about 30 transcribed wills. I have managed to go from roughly 1726 to 1858 with just a couple of gaps. I'm working on the 1680s at present. By doing this, I also found a few extra ancestors for me.
https://www.opc-cornwall.org/Par_new/n_p/wills_parish_files/probus_wills.pdf
It is so satisfying when I transcribe a will and find an ancestor as witness, overseer or appraiser of the goods and writing the inventory. I'm slightly obsessive as I have made lots of trees for people of the parish and I'm linking them up.
I have transcribed many wills for my ancestors and OH's ancestors and I find it the most satisfying part of my research. Without them, I wouldn't have been able to take my branches back so far.
Phoenix, I hope you spend many happy hours perusing your wills.
I've had extremely limited results with wills - either amazing (a few) or hopeless (many). I don't think I have ever found a mention of a potential relative in the will of a random person, or if I have it's because the potential relative has a very common name! Most of my relatives seem to ensure they come from areas where it may cost over £10 to see one will, so more time spect contemplating purchasing one document and no chance for me to browse numerous wills.
However, I just looked at the Wilstshire wills index on Ancestry and see there are over 2000 entries for people from the village where some of my relatives may have come from, so that should keep me busy!
kiterunner
18-10-20, 10:42
I do try the tactic of searching all the wills of the right period for a village or town to see if my ancestor is mentioned, but not so easy when it's a city, though you can sometimes concentrate on those of a particular occupation.
I remember a breakthrough with a PCC will in the old days before they were on ancestry and you had to pay £3.50 to download each one from TNA's website. Our local archives had an event where you could access as many as you wanted to, for free, so I looked at some that I would never have considered paying for and I found one which mentioned some people on my Brown line, helping me to go back several generations.
That is a good idea but I really struggle with the writing. Some are so simple and lovely to read but the others put me off. Maybe once the kids have left school and I can devote myself more to it I'll get used to the writing and it will be easier and productive.
I have started partially transcribing new wills I get, just the names and relationships if given, so I can quickly scan later on to see what is relevant.
ElizabethHerts
18-10-20, 11:14
Transcribing does get easier with practice, Toni. I struggled at first but once you get used to the writing and the stock phrases used some wills can be transcribed quite quickly.
Olde Crone
18-10-20, 11:46
Ooh, just typed a long reply and lost it!
Yes, wills are great and are fantastic value for money most of the time. Only ever had two useless ones.
OC
I have a spent great deal of time transcribing Sussex wills, I've done them for my surnames of interest and for the parishes of Lindfield and Fletching in the hope that one of OH's ancestors will pop up, and indeed they do sometimes as a beneficiary and often as executors or witnesses for neighbours or friends. They have led me to relationships that I would otherwise never have known about and as I live near both these parishes when we visit I have been able to identify properties in which my OH's ancestors lived in Georgian times.
A favourite is the unregistered will of Ann Page in 1641 (it was the civil war) which mentions all her children and grandchildren (some of them get a ewe lamb) and her brother John Dappe which confirmed her maiden name and led in turn to her parents both of whom left wills.
ElizabethHerts
18-10-20, 12:10
It is very satisfying transcribing wills for one rural parish as you really get to know the families and the bonds between them. However, the most infuriating term is "Cosen", which can mean a number of things!
Also, you become very familiar with the family names and the properties in the parish as they passed through the generations.
Lockdown and the past months have been made a lot more enjoyable for me with a project to focus on as I always need a purpose.
Pinefamily
19-10-20, 09:21
I agree that wills can be used in wider searches in a number of ways. I recently searched wills in Luppitt, Devon which helped me sort out my Whitlock sisters. Still haven't absolutely their father, but I suspect it was an early case of surrogacy. The wills helped no end.
ElizabethHerts
19-10-20, 09:35
Oh, Pinefamily, Luppitt! I know it well as I grew up in Honiton. My parents were veterinary surgeons so we knew all the villages and farms really well.
Pinefamily
19-10-20, 11:34
Oh, Pinefamily, Luppitt! I know it well as I grew up in Honiton. My parents were veterinary surgeons so we knew all the villages and farms really well.
Double connection there. My Pine's came from Honiton; my 4x great grandfather had the Angel Inn there. And his son, my 3x great grandfather, married Elizabeth Youatt, sister of William Youatt the vet. Youatt was author of many veterinary textbooks that your parents may have owned.
ElizabethHerts
19-10-20, 12:25
I remember the Angel Hotel very well.
Here is a photo:
https://www.photos-clive.co.uk/photo_10718177.html
It's now a Costa coffee bar. :(
https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5485495
Pinefamily
20-10-20, 07:03
Apparently it was a wine shop before that. My cousin visited Honiton on a trip to the UK, and walked into the shop. He explained to the owner how our ancestor had once owned it, to which the owner replied, "Well you can't have it back!" :D
Back on topic, wills are also very handy with unusual names, both first and last.
I downloaded as many wills as I could find from TNA while they are free. So many of mine did not leave wills, but the ones who did have given me their daughters married names, grandchildren and all sorts of other relatives as well as an interesting array of property (real and personal) to be distributed.
If only my Brighton Sussex ancestors had left wills, I could get that part of the family sorted out properly.
Transcribing does get easier with practice, Toni. I struggled at first but once you get used to the writing and the stock phrases used some wills can be transcribed quite quickly.
I'm getting there slowly. It's the bits that aren't stock phrases that get me lol
I know I just need more consistent effort, which I don't have time for yet.
Sod's Law says that the will you REALLY want to read is mutilated or poorly reproduced. I'm attempted to transcribe a will. Usually the wills are listed chronologically, so you can compare wordings, but this one is filed alphabetically, so I can't even work out what the common form says.
A great idea. I love wills and have a lot of them, but I just cannot read the PCC ones. I have a couple from Lancs Wills and they seem a lot easier.
There used to be a website with a lot of transcribed wills, but I can no longer find it.
ElizabethHerts
22-10-20, 10:05
A great idea. I love wills and have a lot of them, but I just cannot read the PCC ones. I have a couple from Lancs Wills and they seem a lot easier.
There used to be a website with a lot of transcribed wills, but I can no longer find it.
The man who ran it became ill. Another transcriber set up a different site but it didn't really take off.
If you google you can find lots of transcribed wills.
Oxfordshire FHS have a free website with many transcriptions.
Sussex will transcriptions are online.
Cornwall OPC has over 6,600 will transcriptions.
There will be many other websites with similar resources.
Norfolk 1800-1857 is here:
http://www.norfolksources.norfolk.gov.uk/DserveNS/
Not complete, but most of the wills are here - free to view. The complete index is on NROCAT
A great idea. I love wills and have a lot of them, but I just cannot read the PCC ones.
Libby, I loathe round hand. I cannot think why it was adopted as it is so difficult to follow. Paradoxically, the earlier wills are usually easier.
ElizabethHerts
22-10-20, 10:50
I'm transcribing a PCC will from 1602 and it is a doddle. It could have been written yesterday.
As you say, Phoenix, the earlier wills are often more easily decipherable.
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