I came late to the notion of using wills for genealogical research. Although I never actually saw it, I was told many times growing up that my parents' will appointed as guardians my Aunt Jane and Uncle Lew. The first will I remember seeing was my mother's will, shortly after she died on July 7, 1997. Although I knew about it, it was still rather a shock to read on paper that I had been appointed executor ("Personal Representative" of the estate. And as promised, my mother left the Steinway piano to me.
Even helped along during the probate process by my mother's attorney and her paralegal, the paperwork involved in settling my mother's estate was overwhelming. And no sooner had I settled the estate, that it was time to do it all over again, when my father died in September 1998, 14 months after my mother. I remember having a craft table set up in the dining room, piled with paperwork on top of it and on the floor underneath.
The first will I really examined as part of genealogical research was for one of my classes in the NGS Home Study Course, on Wills and Probate. I chose to go to the Puget Sound Regional Archives, a branch of the Washington State Archives, to look at historic wills there. I analyzed and wrote about the will of Seattle founder Arthur Denny, who died 9 January 1899, leaving a wife, Mary, and grown children Margaret, Charles, Roland, Orion, Arthur, and a sizable estate.
On another trip to the Archives, I was looking for a will to use for a transcription exercise, and found the will of Zerah French, written in 1889. This will was unique for a number of reasons: it was written and signed in San Bernardino, California and submitted for probate in King County, Washington Territory. If I were to look for a death record in either of those places I would come up empty, because (as other papers in the probate file revealed) Zerah French died in Michigan, on a trip to see his family there. In this will was a clause I had never seen before:
"and it is furthermore my wish that I be buried beside my Dear Old Wife on the Old Homestead on Green River and that my funeral be conducted with no show of ostentation and with as little expense as possible, and that, under no consideration shall there be any Christian Religious ceremonies over my remains."
"and it is furthermore my wish that I be buried beside my Dear Old Wife on the Old Homestead on Green River and that my funeral be conducted with no show of ostentation and with as little expense as possible, and that, under no consideration shall there be any Christian Religious ceremonies over my remains."
The 1887 will of Joseph Donaldson of South Monaghan, Northumberland, Canada West, that I obtained for a client from a researcher at the Archives of Ontario, was the first (and best) example I'd seen of a decedent providing for his wife after his death:
"To his Mother during her natural life or as she remains my Widdow yearly and every year to pay unto her the sum of Fifty dollars of good and lawfule money of Canada together with the following produce, viz: Twelve pounds of tea, Fifty pounds of Sugar, Five hundred pounds of good flower, Ten bushels potatoes, Thirty pounds Beef or Mutton, One Barrel pork, Twelve pounds of Carded Wool and milch and butter sufficient for her own use allso all fire wood she shall need.
I also desire that my wife possess during her natural life the east half of the house I now live in together with all furniture thereon and her bed, bedding, Bureau & looking glass and the east half of the garden. I allso desire and require my son James George to provide my wife with a conveyance at all times that she shall desire the same to and from church and at least four times each year to and from Port Hope or Peterborough and at all times to provide board and bed for his uncle Samuel Donaldson and allow him the sum of Twenty five dollars each and every year."
Almost 200 years earlier, in Essex County, Massachusetts, Isaac Foster was also taking care of his wife, and to his last will he added a stern admonition to his grown sons:
"And if my two Son Jacob & Danielle Give my Wife Just Cause to Complain & it be so Judged, by honest Rationall men that may have the determining of it if they After Conviction will still carry so unworthily – as is Contrary to this my will then they shall pay Eight pound a year instead of five pounds ..."
"And if my two Son Jacob & Danielle Give my Wife Just Cause to Complain & it be so Judged, by honest Rationall men that may have the determining of it if they After Conviction will still carry so unworthily – as is Contrary to this my will then they shall pay Eight pound a year instead of five pounds ..."
Not too long ago I was reading the 1732 will of Benjamin Dexter, of Rochester, Plymouth County, Massachusetts (found online at FamilySearch), and found direct evidence of family relationships when he stated: "I Give to my Son James all the Lands of all Sorts which descended from the Revd Mr. Samuel Arnold of Rochester his Grandfather to my Wife & me..."
This will was also notable for the Judge of Probate that oversaw its administration - one Isaac Winslow. I thought his name sounded familiar, and sure enough, his Marshfield, Massachusetts home is on the National Register of Historic Places. The portrait of his family hangs in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts:
This will was also notable for the Judge of Probate that oversaw its administration - one Isaac Winslow. I thought his name sounded familiar, and sure enough, his Marshfield, Massachusetts home is on the National Register of Historic Places. The portrait of his family hangs in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts:
And in the latest will I've been transcribing - that of the above-mentioned Rev. Samuel Arnold, I was touched by his bequest to his daughter Mary:"and the use and benefit of a roome in my house called my Study with ... and Table hereunto belonging and the use and Comfort of the nearest bedroome hereunto adjoining with free and unmolested access and egress thereunto during the time of her living a Single life."
And at the beginning of the inventory of his belongings was a notation that I have not seen before, of the exact date of his death:
A True Inventory of all the Estate of the Reverent Mr. Samuel Arnold – Late Pasture of the Church of Christ at Rochester who departed this Life on the Eleventh Day of February 1708/9 as It was taken by us the Subscribers:
The inventory was remarkable in another way. From the will you could tell that Rev. Samuel Arnold was an educated man, and could read and write very well. Although spelling was not standardized in the sixteenth century, his will was easy to decipher, in both the handwriting and the spelling. Not so the spelling and descriptions in the inventory, though, where the word Ammunition was almost unrecognizable, and some of the descriptions were funny in their vagueness: "Earthen and Wooden ware with other useful things for household affaires" and "a Loome and other things belonging to Weaveing" being good examples.
And at the beginning of the inventory of his belongings was a notation that I have not seen before, of the exact date of his death:
A True Inventory of all the Estate of the Reverent Mr. Samuel Arnold – Late Pasture of the Church of Christ at Rochester who departed this Life on the Eleventh Day of February 1708/9 as It was taken by us the Subscribers:
The inventory was remarkable in another way. From the will you could tell that Rev. Samuel Arnold was an educated man, and could read and write very well. Although spelling was not standardized in the sixteenth century, his will was easy to decipher, in both the handwriting and the spelling. Not so the spelling and descriptions in the inventory, though, where the word Ammunition was almost unrecognizable, and some of the descriptions were funny in their vagueness: "Earthen and Wooden ware with other useful things for household affaires" and "a Loome and other things belonging to Weaveing" being good examples.
Over the last few years, since I've become a professional genealogist, I've learned to look for a will or probate records for my person of interest. I've found interesting bequests to children and grandchildren, nieces and nephews; mention of relationships; married names of grown daughters; lists of household belongings, and perhaps most important of all, a real sense of the time and place the testator lived in. When you look for a will, you never know what you might find!
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