Erin, Original wills are transcribed into the books you are seeing by the county clerk when the will is brought in to be probated. So the signatures in the books are not the deceased's signatures. Also as careful as they may try, there are still transcription errors. To see originals you need to go to the probate packet for the person and see if the back of the envelope, torn notepad paper, or whatever the original was written on (smile) was included in the packet. That is document you are describing. I once solved a case that depended on the original since the transcribed book left out the wife's name. I emailed the county clerk's genealogist (this particular county had a person who answered these types of questions). She sent the book copy. No, I said, I want the original. Back and forth we went. She finally found the original packet. Then I dared to ask for the citation. "What's a citation?" she replied. Finally got that too. I hope it was educational for her. -- Elissa Elissa Scalise Powell, CG, CGL www.PowellGenealogy.com www.GRIPitt.org registration opens 7 Feb 2013 CG, Certified Genealogist, CGL, and Certified Genealogical Lecturer are Service Marks of the Board for Certification of Genealogists, used under license by board certificants after periodic evaluations by the Board and the board name is a trademark registered in the US Patent and Trademark Office. > -----Original Message----- > From: On Behalf Of Erin J > Sent: Saturday, February 09, 2013 5:39 PM > > I'm looking for a will to transcribe for practice. This is a basic beginning question. I've > found alot of wills on Family Search and some other County sites. > > They all seem to be taken from volumes. I thought that wills were individual documents. > > Are the wills in the volumes held by the Counties, copies of the originals? or duplicate > copies and the family has the original?