Hi Barbara, You are correct in that all are not digitized and available online. I spoke with kings county Surrogates last year and if you do the look up at their Johnson Street location it is free and you'd pay for copies unless you take a picture with a mobile device. If they do it it is $75, at least at that time. An 1898 will was a goldmine for me as it talked about his son he left in England, the name of his first wife and where the son lived, which I hadn't known previously. If you have a brick wall with these folks, it might be worth it but if it is just to have it in your files, then $75 is a big sum, IMO. > Date: Sat, 4 Apr 2015 16:22:55 +0000 (UTC) > From: Barbara Kiersh <[email protected]> > Subject: [NYC-ROOTS] not all wills digitized > To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]> > Message-ID: > <[email protected]> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 > > ? Joyce and list, > For many of us, our search ends at the General Index.? The years I wanted was 1947 and 1951, Kings County.? These years are only on index cards.? I found the cards I wanted and that's where my search ends.? My grandfather, Sam Kessler's card reads 8762-51, Oct 28, 1951 (which is the date of his death) and then his address at time of death.? No doubt this is him, but I'm not able to go any further.? His second wife's index card is even more sparse, and if I didn't know the date of her death I wouldn't know it was her.? Her card reads Ray Kessler, 4596-47, May 10, 1947.? Obviously the numbers 51 and 47 indicated the years of death.? I don't know what the first numbers refer to, perhaps file number.? But I would still have to order these wills from Kings County Probate Court and pay for them.? Yes, I would like them but I haven't investigated how much they would cost.? I'm assuming expensive.? Right now I'm unwilling to pay. > Joyce or perhaps another lister, if there's a way you know to see the digitized image I would very much appreciate it. > Barbara KiershJacksonville, FL > > - > > them.? Yes, I would like them but I haven't investigated how much they would cost.? I'm assuming expensive.? Right now I'm unwilling to pay. > Joyce or perhaps another lister, if there's a way you know to see the digitized image I would very much appreciate it. > Barbara KiershJacksonville, FL > > ------------------------------ > >

These old documents are steadily being digitized by the counties themselves. Several years ago I worked at one of the companies that contracts to do the digital conversion, doing indexing . Not every county nor every area is yet involved, though, and every locality chooses what they will digitize. Sometimes it's by department, such as deeds, or probate. I was able to find a whole bunch of documents about a three times great grandfather in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, on the county web site. I learned who were the daughters who lived - and the names of their husbands, and that my 2x great grandmother's mother was a second wife. Dora -----Original Message----- From: Christine Clark via Sent: Sunday, April 05, 2015 6:58 AM To: [email protected] Subject: [NYC-ROOTS] Not all wills digitized Hi Barbara, You are correct in that all are not digitized and available online. I spoke with kings county Surrogates last year and if you do the look up at their Johnson Street location it is free and you'd pay for copies unless you take a picture with a mobile device. If they do it it is $75, at least at that time. An 1898 will was a goldmine for me as it talked about his son he left in England, the name of his first wife and where the son lived, which I hadn't known previously. If you have a brick wall with these folks, it might be worth it but if it is just to have it in your files, then $75 is a big sum, IMO. > Date: Sat, 4 Apr 2015 16:22:55 +0000 (UTC) > From: Barbara Kiersh <[email protected]> > Subject: [NYC-ROOTS] not all wills digitized > To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]> > Message-ID: > <[email protected]> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 > > ? Joyce and list, > For many of us, our search ends at the General Index.? The years I wanted > was 1947 and 1951, Kings County.? These years are only on index cards.? I > found the cards I wanted and that's where my search ends.? My grandfather, > Sam Kessler's card reads 8762-51, Oct 28, 1951 (which is the date of his > death) and then his address at time of death.? No doubt this is him, but > I'm not able to go any further.? His second wife's index card is even more > sparse, and if I didn't know the date of her death I wouldn't know it was > her.? Her card reads Ray Kessler, 4596-47, May 10, 1947.? Obviously the > numbers 51 and 47 indicated the years of death.? I don't know what the > first numbers refer to, perhaps file number.? But I would still have to > order these wills from Kings County Probate Court and pay for them.? Yes, > I would like them but I haven't investigated how much they would cost.? > I'm assuming expensive.? Right now I'm unwilling to pay. > Joyce or perhaps another lister, if there's a way you know to see the > digitized image I would very much appreciate it. > Barbara KiershJacksonville, FL > > - > > them.? Yes, I would like them but I haven't investigated how much they > would cost.? I'm assuming expensive.? Right now I'm unwilling to pay. > Joyce or perhaps another lister, if there's a way you know to see the > digitized image I would very much appreciate it. > Barbara KiershJacksonville, FL > > ------------------------------ > > ------------------------------- 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 --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. http://www.avast.com

I found yesterday while searching through KINGS that more recent wills are not indexed, but for the newer ones there is a file # and you probably need to go to local sources to get it. Many people did not have wills, but there are also links for probate etc that you might want to look at for those who died intestate. I am sure not every will that ever existed is in these files on familysearch.org , but there are tons of them. With luck you will find the one you need. I have had overwhelming responses asking for the WORD doc and in many cases I sent them to many people at one time via BCC...so check your SPAM folders if you have not heard back from me. If you did not get it for some reason, email me again and I will resend. Have a great day Joyce On Sun, Apr 5, 2015 at 4:58 AM, Christine Clark via <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi Barbara, > > You are correct in that all are not digitized and available online. > > I spoke with kings county Surrogates last year and if you do the look up > at their Johnson Street location it is free and you'd pay for copies unless > you take a picture with a mobile device. > > If they do it it is $75, at least at that time. > > An 1898 will was a goldmine for me as it talked about his son he left in > England, the name of his first wife and where the son lived, which I > hadn't known previously. > > If you have a brick wall with these folks, it might be worth it but if it > is just to have it in your files, then $75 is a big sum, IMO. > > > > > > Date: Sat, 4 Apr 2015 16:22:55 +0000 (UTC) > > From: Barbara Kiersh <[email protected]> > > Subject: [NYC-ROOTS] not all wills digitized > > To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]> > > Message-ID: > > <[email protected]> > > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 > > > > ? Joyce and list, > > For many of us, our search ends at the General Index.? The years I > wanted was 1947 and 1951, Kings County.? These years are only on index > cards.? I found the cards I wanted and that's where my search ends.? My > grandfather, Sam Kessler's card reads 8762-51, Oct 28, 1951 (which is the > date of his death) and then his address at time of death.? No doubt this is > him, but I'm not able to go any further.? His second wife's index card is > even more sparse, and if I didn't know the date of her death I wouldn't > know it was her.? Her card reads Ray Kessler, 4596-47, May 10, 1947.? > Obviously the numbers 51 and 47 indicated the years of death.? I don't know > what the first numbers refer to, perhaps file number.? But I would still > have to order these wills from Kings County Probate Court and pay for > them.? Yes, I would like them but I haven't investigated how much they > would cost.? I'm assuming expensive.? Right now I'm unwilling to pay. > > Joyce or perhaps another lister, if there's a way you know to see the > digitized image I would very much appreciate it. > > Barbara KiershJacksonville, FL > > > > - > > > > them.? Yes, I would like them but I haven't investigated how much they > would cost.? I'm assuming expensive.? Right now I'm unwilling to pay. > > Joyce or perhaps another lister, if there's a way you know to see the > digitized image I would very much appreciate it. > > Barbara KiershJacksonville, FL > > > > ------------------------------ > > > > > > > ------------------------------- > 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 > -- Researching Stephenson/Stevenson, Fleury, Heald, Lindelof, Young, Rubino, Cammarota, Mandracchia, Vaiarelli, Mulhern, Johnson, Haight, Erickson, Munson, Northrup, Sears, Camp, Gunn, Allen, Gorham, Plumb, Beard, Rogers, Eliot, Briscoe, Bradley, Mix, Wilmot, Pritchard, Mew, Stone, Sparke, Bayley, Bailey, Redfield, Redfin, Howland, Tilley, Sturgis, Hinckley, Kirk, Norton, Gerard, and many more...