Family Historian User Group

I am fairly new to FH and would like a little help with Wills, please

I can see how to enter details of these by adding an Event to a person's detail record, but can I print out some form of report or table which can show me exactly which Wills i have on my files. (necessary to avoid ordering a copy of the same will !)

I'd ideally like to be able to do the same with birth, marriage and death certificates too

Ideally I'd like to have a simple sheet showing me at a glance which documents i have on file.

thanks in advance for any help

ID:2788

You can use a query to extract almost any information you want.

How are you currently recording your wills, I presume 1 source per will, if so you can simply add a source type of will and you can filter your sources by type to find the ones you already have.

Thanks Jane for your help.

i'm not sure about how I will enter Wills yet as I'm still finding out about the program and haven't done so yet. I think I would enter the date of the will, a place of abode where straight forward and a brief summary of the content, and whether I actually had the will on file.

I presume that filtering the list of sources is simple from what you say.

I would treat a will as a source. So a title of the 'Will of xxxx' with the transcription attached. Will's tend to generate lot's of events, as they often give residences of multiple people, bequests, etc.

I don't have too many wills for my families as they are mostly of the 'Ag Lab' variety so hopefully some one else will jump in with their prefered method.

To filter the sources, is an easy job in a query.

I would encourage you to follow Jane's suggestion. Create sources for each will and then create events such as residence, occupation, etc. as appropriate with citations linked to the source.

I create a source for each will/probate document with a linked multimedia object (usually a pdf created from a scan of the document(s). For example:

[S1353] Probate (Dagless, Thomas 1852)
     Title: Probate (Dagless, Thomas 1852)
     Type: Will/Probate
     Publication Information: Probate of Thomas Dagless 1852 Norwich Consistory Court
     Repository: [R45] NOAH
     Multimedia Object: [O1097] DaglessThomas-1852-probate
     Note Record: [N44] * Primary
     Custom Id: W/P Dagless

As Jane says, wills can generate multiple events. The example above generated 21 events/attributes across 7 different people.

Also, remember to distinguish between the writing of the will (the Will event) and the proving of the will (the Probate event) after death. In most cases (and I suspect this is the norm) what I have are not original wills but proved copies. The example above generated 3 will events for the testator (the original will and two codicils, written many years apart) and the final probate event.

Also, don't despair if most of your ancestors are ag labs (as, indeed, mine are). The guy in the example was originally a humble village blacksmith.

In addition to the excellent sugestions above, I also have Flags for Will, Probate and Intestate, which I set on the Individual record as appropriate, and display an Icon on Diagrams (along with BMD and Census Icons). This gives a very quick visual record of what's on file as I'm working off the diagram.

Slightly off track, but where would I start to look for family wills? I had not thought of them as a source of info before.

For wills after 1858 see this research guide for details:

Wills after 1858

The location of wills before 1858 depends mainly (but not always) on the area of the country your ancestor was in. There is some information here:

http://www.familyrecords.gov.uk/topics/wills_3.htm

It is also worth looking on the web site of the relevant county record office to see if they have information on Wills. For example the Cheshire Will indexes can be searched and ordered on-line.

Thanks for that gladtobegrey: a really useful suggestion. i'm new to the program so wouldn't mind a bit more explanation about how you get the icon into the boxes in a diagram, please.

Thanks for the other suggestions too, they've helped me a lot

Thanks Nick, I'll give them a try over the weekend.

rclrocco said:
i'm new to the program so wouldn't mind a bit more explanation about how you get the icon into the boxes in a diagram, please.

Click on 'How To's' from the website's main menu on the left. Using Flags and Icons is in the Intermediate section of the How To's. Alternatively go straight to the tutorial here - http://www.fhug.org.uk/flash/fhflags.html