As Friday has again arrived, I want to close out the week with another tip. When you read through a copy of a will you will find three dates listed. Perhaps someone who has transcribed the will has not included all three dates, but they can be very important and why we need to see the original if at all possible. Date 1 is the date the will was written by the deceased. This date can be indicated either at the beginning of the will or at the end. It will read "on such and such a date" or "given under my hand on such and such a date." You know he or she was alive on that date. Date 2 is the date that the will was "acknowledged" in court. This date will normally be underneath the signatures of the deceased and the signature of the county clerk. It is normally just a sentence or so saying that this was acknowledged by the county clerk. It could also be found on the outside of the "packet" as it was called which involved all the paperwork involved in settling the estate. Date 3 is the date when the will was recorded by the clerk and entered into the records of the county. Sometimes these wills were acknowledged and recorded rather promptly; some times there was a lengthy time period between the date written by the deceased and the recording. And - sometimes the researcher can find a clue between the dates. If you're trying to find the death date of your ancestor and no record of his death exists, this will pinpoint the date sometime between the original date and the recording date. Also, if family members are mentioned in the will, the researcher can get close to finding the date a marriage or death has taken place. For a daughter, she might be referred to as "my daughter Sarah Jones" when the will was written, but she signs as Sarah Smith." Bingo - she has married. Or you might see the term "my late son John Jones" This would indicate to you that when the man wrote the will, this son was already deceased. A man might leave property to his wife, Mary Smith ... but by the time the papers are finalized, she signs as Mary Black. She has remarried after his death. There are many examples of clues one can find if you read between the lines. A lot can happen between the first and last dates - marriages, births, deaths or moves from the area. Read them carefully! As an aside - I need some more guessers to the finally "reactivated" puzzlers. Only about seven people have guessed ... come on guys! Sandi Sandi's Puzzlers: http://www.gensoup.org/gorinpuzzles/index.php Sandi's site: http://ggpublishing.tripod.com/