I din't ask the date range. The wills I looked at were from 1825 to 1887 and they had all of them. You can call and ask. Everything was filmed in the wills I looked at. I don't know the date range at the HSP. -----Original Message----- From: phillysleuth@verizon.net To: philly-roots@rootsweb.com Sent: Fri, 11 May 2007 1:36 PM Subject: Re: [Phly-Rts] Wills and Admins Merle, Do you know the date range for which the wills are on film at room 185? At one time I thought the oldest ones weren't, and then I got the impression from somewhere that it was the more recent ones, whatever those terms mean, which weren't. If even just the 19th century wills were filmed, it certainly would be a great time saver to follow your lead in weeding out which ones are relevant by viewing them there. Another question: is it just the will that is filmed, or everything in the will file that you get when you request the original? I know that if you mail in a request for a will, that's all you get unless you are explicit in asking for copies of everything in the folder. A lot of the extra paper in a will file is legalese of no value to your research, but the estate inventories and accounting are fascinating and frequently reveal little tidbits about the deceased's life style. It would also be helpful to know the cutoff date for the filmed wills at HSP. I know they are older, but don't remember just how old. Do you happen to have that or should I just try to extract it from their online catalog? Thanks, jo ----- Original Message ----- From: <organizr01@aol.com> To: <PHILLY-ROOTS-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Friday, May 11, 2007 01:51 AM Subject: [Phly-Rts] Wills and Admins > I am in Philly researching. Here's the story on the Wills and Admins. > > City Hall Room 187 has the indexes in books. Look in the books by 1st letter of surname, then by first name. > Get all the numbers. There is a separate set of books for the Wills and the Admins. > City Hall Room 185 has the wills on microfilm. View them for free. I viewed 11, only 1 of which was difficult to > read. The Admins are not on film. > City Hall Room 180, across the hall, is where you order Wills and Admins when you want to see the originals. > See Glendora to order. If you order in the morning, you can view the documents that afternoon. > Someone comes from the Will Archives daily between 3 and 4 pm. Each document you view costs $3 but > sometimes Glendora will give you a break. > If you order in the afternoon, you have to wait until the next day to see the documents. > Copies are $2 per page if you are there in person. > A Will or Admin ordered by mail is $15. > > Of the 11 Wills I looked at, none had any value for me. By viewing the films instead of the actual documents, > I saved $33. > I ordered 7 admins. None had any value for me. Glendora charged me $12, which was fair. > Had I viewed 18 documents and spent at least $45 I would have been very unhappy. > > This is the last research trip to Philly for me. In between my usual frantic activity while there, I took the time to browse through the HSP file cabinets and lo and behold there I found wills on film. Copies there are 50 cents per page, though there is a $6 non-member admission fee. The ambiance is superb and the staff is helpful. > > Merle > > ________________________________________________________________________ > AOL now offers free email to everyone. Find out more about what's free from AOL at AOL.com. > > > ********* > Visit the threaded archives of this list: http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/PHILLY-ROOTS > ********* > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to PHILLY-ROOTS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message > > > -- > No virus found in this incoming message. > Checked by AVG Free Edition. > Version: 7.5.446 / Virus Database: 269.6.6/795 - Release Date: 05/09/2007 03:07 PM > > -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.446 / Virus Database: 269.6.6/795 - Release Date: 05/09/2007 03:07 PM ********* Visit the threaded archives of this list: http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/PHILLY-ROOTS ********* ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to PHILLY-ROOTS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message ________________________________________________________________________ AOL now offers free email to everyone. Find out more about what's free from AOL at AOL.com.