twssls@flash.net asks: > If a man died without a will in VA about 1773, what other records might > one find concerning his estate? Were letters of testamentary required, > for example, or would there be an inventory of the estate recorded? > Most men (and women) dying in Virginia in 1773, of course, had no estate. The records we have available today are mostly from owners of real property. An exception might be the Leeds Manor tenants, most of whom had a lease for their lifetime and for the lifetime of two others -- generally, their children. They may have had enough non-realty assets, including slaves, to require administration. Anything that is not "real property" is "personal property," which includes bank accounts and stock certificates. But there weren't any of those, at least as we know them now, in the late 1700s. Wealth was held in the form of precious-metal coins, bank "notes" (IOU's issued by pirvate banks), agricultural and industrial implements, and household goods. Families then did with these what families do now, when values are not great -- they divided them up as the law required, or as they agreed among themselves.

>>If a man died without a will in VA about 1773, what other records might one find concerning his estate? Were letters of testamentary required, for example, or would there be an inventory of the estate recorded?<< Yes, there were detailed inventories made and presented to the court of the property of those who died.The inventory was of the personal property of the deceased. Ususally the court ordered someone to view the property and list each item and give an appraised value. This was practiced in Virginia from the early 1600s. G. Lee Hearl Authentic Appalachian Storyteller Abingdon, Va.