Hi All, People write & ask me questions all the time so I thought I'd give a little information here. It's just a drop in the bucket but may help some one. This is mostly for those new at searching for their ancestors. New researchers mostly think in terms of just obtaining a will. Sometimes that is fine & one gets the basic information needed, but this is not always the case. First of all, if a courthouse is willing to send you a copy of the will & even when you go there for it, you are not going to get a copy of the original will. You are going to get a copy that has been recorded in a numbered will book. The one exception is if the courthouse has microfilmed the actual wills & all the settlement of estate papers so you can examine them yourself. Otherwise, this can make quite a difference mostly for 2 reasons. But be careful - some courthouses have the ones from the Will Book & not the originals microfilmed too. You sometimes need to look over them very carefully to know the difference. Just because the handwriting looks old doesn't mean it's the original. Even some of the staff won't realize that as they don't really need to pay attention to those aspects of their jobs. 1. It will not show the original signatures of the party who died, nor anyone else, like the witnesses to the event. Sometimes this can be needed to prove it's the same person you are looking for in order to establish the comparison you might have from another document they signed. 2. There is always the possibility that the recorder missed a person mentioned in the will or states the wrong name, and/or even a date can be incorrect. I can site my own experiences over the years with this happening more than once. You need to insist on seeing the original copy if you suspect an error has occurred, otherwise all may just be fine with the recorded copy for the most part. I have also seen a person who's name can be spelled more than one way be recorded twice. It is because of this that you will see 2 wills in different sections of the book but for the same party. It doesn't happen too often, but it can. I'd rather that than not being recorded at all. The thing is that just because there is no will does not mean there is no estate to be settled in the Orphans Court. If the party owned property or had children who had guardians named for them you will find this recorded in the index listings. So many times this is over-looked & in published listings for early wills. It is true that many people without property of any kind did not have a will or anything to be settled. This is unfortunate but does happen. There should be the paperwork to look at involving any estate. However, some have been lost, stolen or misplaced over the years. This is more the case the earlier the time period involved. Many of the early estate papers are fragile & crumbling. Some courthouses have been microfilming all those earlier papers but not all courthouses have accomplished this to date. Actually, they do not like you to have to look at these papers but if something is really important you may find it is the only way to possibly & I do mean possibly glean further family data. I'll take this up further at a later time. One other thing to be taken up at this time is the fact that so many inquiries come in about people who have lived in the area & then moved on with their families to another county or state. This makes it harder to find courthouse data on them. Unless they are mentioned in a will or settlement as an heir they are not going to appear in the county were they left in that department. Then you will have to rely on material like a deed for sale of property they owned & sold or were involved with another member of the family in the disposition of property. There are also tax records that may help if you know what township they came from & if the years are available in the retentions center (providing they have one) or else you will need to check in the tax office or go to the local library to read them on microfilm. The library is the place for the early ones in Fayette County. This is just partial information above but I feel it is enough for a new person to absorb at this time. It is always best if you can visit the courthouse & take whatever time you need to do a search, but if you can't it may become necessary to enlist the aid of someone with the experience to do so for you. One just can't rely on doing genealogy by using the internet. It is a great tool but not the answer to everything. It is also advisable to learn the court house department of interest's procedures. You are pretty much on your own in most of them. The head of each individual department may differ in what they will & will not do. In fact, even costs of documents can vary considerably. I do hope this helps some of the new people on this list. It's just a fraction of what one needs to know if they are seriously interested in family research in detail & with back-up proofs to do with it. It is unfortunate that so many can't go to a court house to do their own work because of where they live but that's the case. It can take many long hard working hours to truly do your line in a proper manner. Good luck to all who are planning research trips this spring & summer. Ellen (ETHS-VP Visit my web site at: http://www.familytreetracer.com <http://www.familytreetracer.com/> <http://www.familytreetracer.com/> Visit my web site at: http://www.familytreetracer.com <http://www.familytreetracer.com/>