The paid-for genealogy website, Ancestry, has digitized and uploaded nearly 100 million American wills on its website. They range from the centuries-old last wills and testaments of historical figures like Harriet Beecher Stowe and Paul Revere, to those of commonplace paupers and working people at the beginning of the 21st century. Revere, it's interesting to note, left $500 to all of his grandkids expect one. That grandchild was left a deliberately scathing amount of just $1.
The wills are sometimes the only proof of a person's existence so will prove highly interesting to those researching their families. They may even prove interesting to people researching missing persons' cold cases, where money or inheritance is thought to be a factor.
Unfortunately, today's paupers won't have online access if they can't pay, despite the fact these are public records. Ancestry did the work of putting them online, so anyone hoping to search the records via the Internet will need to pay up and become a member.
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/c99a...wills-millions-americans-now-available-online
The wills are sometimes the only proof of a person's existence so will prove highly interesting to those researching their families. They may even prove interesting to people researching missing persons' cold cases, where money or inheritance is thought to be a factor.
Unfortunately, today's paupers won't have online access if they can't pay, despite the fact these are public records. Ancestry did the work of putting them online, so anyone hoping to search the records via the Internet will need to pay up and become a member.
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/c99a...wills-millions-americans-now-available-online
