Dear Washington County people, My German immigrant ancestor died in 1799 and was buried in Washington County on his farm. He was literate and did many real estate deals during his lifetime, presumably in English. He died owning maybe a dozen tracts of land on which he settled all 7 of his children. His sons paid Mary his wife her dower. His complex estate was settled by amicable agreement among his children over about 8 years with deeds showing up in the deed office reciting monetary consideration to all the other children from the child buying this particular piece. I have heard it said that in Pennsylvania many wills written in the German language were not probated but instead kept in separate files. Many still exist there. They could never be abstracted by people who did not read German nor understood by those functionaries who made no attempt to translate them. Does anyone know if this happened in Frederick or Washington counties in Maryland? Do they have a separate drawer where they have un-probated German wills like I'm told some PA counties do? Ned