Hi, Missing LIncs,     I know that there are a few of you who think "My ancestor was poor and didn't need to leave a Will."  But you might be surprised.  I like them because they are a treasure trove of information.  Sometimes they tell you where missing kin have flitted off to, or who a daughter has married.     Ros Dunning has contributed 17 wills for you to read and I've got another one from Kitty Parker, too.  And Ros has at least one more in the pipeline, but I wanted to let you know that these are available.  It's a good chance to see how the wills were written, terms used and relationships spelled out.  Many ask for a distribution of funds a whole year after the person has died.  Well, you read 'em.  You'll see.         http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/LIN/Wills/index.html             Lou

I agree with Lou there is a great deal of useful information contained in Wills and I have found them invaluable. It can be rather off-putting to have to wade through all the legal phraseology, stuffed full of "the said", "heretofore", "wheresoever and whatsoever" etc. and usually one sentence from start to finish. I believe that solicitors were able to charge per word so to make a simple will seem complex they padded them out and charged accordingly. How the often illiterate testator was able to understand that his wishes were properly recorded is a mystery to me. A modern will by comparison is a model of clarity. It would be an excellent project if someone could set up a clearing house so that anyone who had gone through the agony of transcribing an old will could make it available for other researchers. I would certainly be willing to offer my transcriptions for others to view. Antony -----Original Message----- From: Louis Mills [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: 23 April 2014 16:33 To: Eng Lincsgen Subject: [LIN] Lincolnshire WIlls Hi, Missing LIncs,     I know that there are a few of you who think "My ancestor was poor and didn't need to leave a Will."  But you might be surprised.  I like them because they are a treasure trove of information.  Sometimes they tell you where missing kin have flitted off to, or who a daughter has married.

If you have a will transcription on your computer, I'd be happy to put it (them) on the same web page.  I can usually accept them in any form created by most software.  I no longer have Microsoft Works on my machine, but if you save the file as Rich Text Format that would be ideal.  MS Word is OK, PDF is great. Takes me a day or three to get them up to the server.     Lou ________________________________ From: Antony Barber <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Thursday, April 24, 2014 2:22 AM Subject: Re: [LIN] Lincolnshire WIlls I agree with Lou there is a great deal of useful information contained in Wills and I have found them invaluable.  It can be rather off-putting to have to wade through all the legal phraseology, stuffed full of "the said", "heretofore", "wheresoever and whatsoever" etc. and usually one sentence from start to finish. I believe that solicitors were able to charge per word so to make a simple will seem complex they padded them out and charged accordingly.  How the often illiterate testator was able to understand that his wishes were properly recorded is a mystery to me.  A modern will by comparison is a model of clarity. It would be an excellent project if someone could set up a clearing house so that anyone who had gone through the agony of transcribing an old will could make it available for other researchers.  I would certainly be willing to offer my transcriptions for others to view. Antony -----Original Message----- From: Louis Mills [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: 23 April 2014 16:33 To: Eng Lincsgen Subject: [LIN] Lincolnshire WIlls Hi, Missing LIncs,     I know that there are a few of you who think "My ancestor was poor and didn't need to leave a Will."  But you might be surprised.  I like them because they are a treasure trove of information.  Sometimes they tell you where missing kin have flitted off to, or who a daughter has married. ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message