John, I can't speak for all states, but the microfilm of my gg-grandfather's will in Fairfield County, Ohio, 1833, was of a copy made by the Circuit Court Clerk in the County's Will Book. I think the original was kept by the family. Shirley in Missouri "John Light-Monterey,CA" wrote: > 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 > > ==== PALEBANO Mailing List ==== > For a great list of most of the on-line mailing lists (and ability to subscribe to them) check out John Fuller's Internet Resources web page: > <http://members.aol.com/johnf14246/internet.html>