Hi, I've been to the court houses you mentioned for Berks/Lancaster/Lebanon counties. There are different systems and different results you get from each one, depending upon how you got your info. The Berks County wills are indexed at www.berksregofwills.com and you can search their site and send for records. On my visits there I had printed copies of those index pages and they pulled the actual files for me to copy the original. They would be those you have with the seals and actual signatures, not the squiggly lines. I believe if you ask for a copy of the originals to be sent to you, they will do that. At Lebanon, they have index books and you are able to pull the original file yourself, with the originals as described above. At Lancaster, the older wills are filed in the archives and they have books available with the wills recopied (or translated if they were written in German) in those books and they appear with the squiggly lines you mentioned. They will pull the original if you ask and I've gotten those copies. They will also stamp the copy as a copy of the original. Film copies for estate records (including wills) are available at the PA Archives, but they are copies of the books for the most part (the re-copied version). Personally, if I just want the info. the re-copied version is fine. If I'm searching for the "one that came over" then I want a copy of the original. Hope that helps. Sherrie Yuhas work-work-work@msn.com Visit my website at: http://homepages.msn.com/HobbyCt/work-work-work/ -----Original Message----- From: John Light-Monterey,CA <jblight@redshift.com> To: PALEBANO-L@rootsweb.com <PALEBANO-L@rootsweb.com> Date: Thursday, October 21, 1999 12:59 AM Subject: [PALEBANO] Wills, signatures and seals >I am hoping someone familiar with SE PA (spec. Lebanon/Lancaster/Berks) >county wills of the 1800s that can help me. I recently photographed and >copied some wills and found some curious idiosyncrasies. >I had assumed any will in "the vault", as it were, would be an >original. I noticed in one case that a will in its microfilmed copy was >not in the same handwriting and with the same signature as the "hard >copy" in the file. I also noticed that the seals for this particular >will varied, with the microfilmed copy having the word "seal" surrounded >by a squiggly line forming a circle, and the "hard copy" with a drawn >seal and the letters "LS". Other wills had either a handwritten >squiggly circle with the letters "LS" or an actual stamp with the >letters LS, or just the word "seal" in the drawn circle. Some wills I >consider to be originals because there is an "appearance" of an >authentic signature (such as the handwriting differing from that of the >text and/or the distinction of apparent training in German script). Two >wills are from different families, so the initials "LS" within the seal >don't seem to have familial significance as I expected; perhaps the seal >belonged to any attorney or other officer of the court drawing up a >will, kind of like today's notary seal? In one case the seal has a red >background (maybe wax) with a cut out of a multi-tipped star attached >over the red area and the letters written in the center of the star. >Does anyone know what LS stands for? Is it just coincidence that these >seals appear on the wills with likely original signatures, or if not, >what about those wills that also have strikingly different signatures >from the text, but with only the squiggly circle and the word "seal"? >Is this the convention used when the maker of a will didn't have their >own seal or is it a convention for the copies of originals, but what >about the distinctive signature on these, are they likely just a clerk's >affected attempt at making a signature? These signatures are online (in >PDF format, use bookmark view)- >http://www.redshift.com/~jblight/willsign.pdf >for anyone interested or who can help me evaluate some degree of most >likely authentic (if that is possible?) and I will post them to my web >site, but thought I'd put out a feeler or two first. Can anyone point >me in the direction of a 19th century "wills" expert or list group? >Thank-you - JL > >______________________________