Wills on Ancestry



 

Wills-writtenAvailable on Ancestry.com is the massive collection of Wills across the nation now made digital. It is a scanned digital copy of the actual (mostly handwritten) Wills of original people. These documents cover well over 100 million people, including the deceased (names, dates) as well as their family, friends and others involved in the probate process.

There are more than 170 million pages from Wills and probate records filed in the United States on the Ancestry.com site, some from before 1668 and going to 2005. Normally you would have to know which of the nation’s 3,007 county courthouses an ancestor’s Will was filed in. With the search on Ancestry.com, you can check a number of locations or all of them. There will be more Wills added in the near future.

Not all states and dates are covered. For example: Maryland is 1604-1878, California is 1782 to 1999 and Wisconsin is 1800-1987.  Wills-handwritten-will

A Will preserves what was on an ancestor’s mind when they had to sit down to write their Will. Interesting !

Related FamilyTree.com genealogical blogs:

Wills in the United Kingdom

Collecting Vital Records

 

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