Well, SUPPOSEDLY, a vast number of the papers from Hampshire that were "lost" have been found and they are in the process of being filmed for security purposes. As to what all was found remains a great, unpublicized mystery and it is also not clear when or how an index will be prepared and access or copies granted. Elaine D Tomkins wrote: > Elizabeth, if you go to http://www.rootsweb.com/~wvgenweb/, you will see a > listing of all WV counties, their parent counties, and dates formed. You > will see that Hardy was still part of Hampshire in 1765, but you may or may > not find the will there because of the records that were lost or destroyed > during the Civil War. You may, however, get lucky, so it is worth a try. > When contacting the Hampshire Courthouse, ask them to not only check the > index of wills there in the county, but also the listing of those included > in the old basement records that have been sent to the State Archives for > restoration and microfilming. Good luck!

Mike, First of all, I think someone has played "fast & loose" with the "old basement records." The Hampshire Co. Library has a copy of each version of William Rice's [unfinished] index to the old basement records, the first typewritten version (also at the courthouse), and the published "book" version which should be called a booklet. They are not the same. I found some items listed in the later published version that included items that had started out upstairs and for some reason were transferred to the ones from the basement. I know this because the wills of Larkin Day Henderson and his son Thos. F. Henderson (my gg and g-grandfathers) had been listed in an index (or abstract) of wills in a book published in 1995 which I saw at the library. I also found them listed in Rice's published index. When I looked for them in July in those boxes up on the shelf in the courthouse where the wills are kept, they were not there, so I had to order them--to be ordered from the State Archives where the old records had been sent. Two days later when I visited my aunt in Cumberland, she had copies of those two wills, and has had them for years. So I would like to know why the "switcheroo," and I wonder how many other records received this treatment. Obviously they were upstairs with the others in 1995, and I would be willing to bet that if I had ordered them before Mr. Rice came into the picture, they would have been found with the others upstairs. I have since received copies of the two wills, but not of another item listed in his index which I ordered. Ann H., the old basement records are in the WV State Archives in Charleston in the process of restoration and microfilming. To get a copy of any of them, one must place an order with the Hampshire Co. Clerk of Court, who will in turn order it from the State Archives. They will send you a bill with the copies. You will be charged a search fee and a copy fee, all lumped into one amount, not itemized. I believe that someone on this list had purchased Mr. Rice's "book" and had offered to do lookup's. Perhaps if you requested a lookup here on the list, they could tell you if the will you are seeking is in that index. That would be especially useful since the only version of Rice's index I saw at the courthouse was the first typewritten one, which was different from the later published version. Elaine Veerle Foreman wrote: > Well, SUPPOSEDLY, a vast number of the papers from Hampshire that were "lost" > have been found and they are in the process of being filmed for security > purposes. As to what all was found remains a great, unpublicized mystery and it > is also not clear when or how an index will be prepared and access or copies > granted.