There is an actual "treasure-house" of virtually unexplored material, including dozens of 16th-17thc. Disbrow wills, all pertaining to our early Disbrows of Cambridgeshire at the Shire Hall in Cambridge, CAMBS, Eng. I intend to explore this on my return visit to Cambridge for better copies & for a little 'professional' help (at cost) in calligraphy decipherment this November (after my far too brief attempt last year when I retrieved a paltry 4 or 5 of these will copies in very olde calligraphy which I've since had some trouble deciphering). Another invaluable resource is the Cambridgshire Library in downtown Cambrdge which has seemingly "endless" microfilm lists of our Disbrows in their genealogy records for those critical periods of our interest, including for Hatley, Over and Burrough Green Disbrows, etc. I brought home a two inch thick pile of copies of that material which I have far too slowly been trying mightily to work my way through. The Shire Hall address/contact is: Cambridge RO*, Shire Hall, Cambridge CB3 0AP Tel: 01223 717281 Overseas: +44 1223 717281 Email: Cambridge Record Office FHS: Cambs FHS Carl Dunn wrote: > The following paragraph was posted in Sep 2000 by Barbara > Hutchings. I believe it was copied from material prepared > by Della Alsup Disbrow. My question follows the paragraph. > > > "The earliest records I have found to date pertaining to the Disbrow name > appears in Cambridge County, England, just prior to the reign of Henry VIII. > The first is a will executed by William of Chesterton parish sometime > between 1486-1505. Wills executed between 1515-1533 were for John of > Stretchworth parish; John of West Wratting parish; and Thomas of Waterbeach > parish. John Cottenham parish had a will probated sometime between 1549-1554" > > Does anyone have abstracts of these wills ? Or does anyone > know where they can be obtained ? I believe that there is > a book indexing wills of Ely Consistory in this time period > and I believe the wills themselves are now in the Kings > College Archives of Cambridge University. Does anyone > know how abstracts or copies can be obtained ? > > Analysis of these wills may extend the Disbrowe ancestry > back a couple of generations. For example, one websites > gedcom shows the John of West Wratting as grandfather of > John, the Saffron Walden schoolmaster. Perhaps this can be > verified. >