I have just posted 25 will abstracts for the Town of Kinderhook, Columbia Co., NY (1708-1786). All were proved in New York City at a time before a Surrogate's Court was established in each county in 1787. New Amsterdam / New York City was the capitol of New York Province/State until the capitol moved to Albany in 1797. [NYC even became the first capitol of the United States in 1789, but only remained so for a year. In 1790, the capitol moved to Philadelphia.]. Apparently, if a will had a value over 50 pounds, it had to be proved by the provincial government. That government had its seat in New York City. When NY became a state in 1777, the capitol did not change until 1797 when it moved to Albany. Agnes Cloninger typed the will abstracts, and I created the index of 328 names that were in the wills. Since I was born in the Town of Kinderhook, this project has been very special for me. My thanks to Agnes for her tireless efforts in this project that will increase our online knowledge of Columbia Co. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~clifflamere/Wills/Wills-Kinder.htm Cliff http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~clifflamere/