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Wills !!!!!!!!!!!

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  • Wills !!!!!!!!!!!

    Wills. Don't you just love them. Some give you a big HIGH. And others give you a big LOW.

    OH sent for her Grandfathers will last year , it turned out to be a large skeleton .
    The executor had not followed the wishes of his father and kept the lot , and stole his sisters share.
    This took a lot of unravelling.
    I can not say any more as there are living people involved.

    On my side there was a memory from the past that my Father's Aunt had left him some money in her will , this was enough for the deposit on my parents house.
    After 3 goes I eventually got the right death certificate and sent for the will.
    Sure enough both my parents were mentioned and the amount would have been enough for the deposit.

    But the interesting part was the lady who received the largest share , who was Kathleen Daisy White ? Eventually I traced her back and found that she was the Grand Daughter of one of my Grandfathers brothers. Up to this point I had no idea that Arthur White existed , I had all the rest of the siblings but had missed him. A whole new branch existed.

    Now I have to trace all the other people mentioned in the will.
    Just when it seemed to be getting boring there are new avenues to explore.

    There are more wills on the way , so I should be busy over the coming dark nights.
    :D


    Ken

  • #2
    My most disappointing Will, of which I had such high hopes, lol, was

    "I leave everything to my neighbour Mary (doodah) in recognition of her kindness to me".

    This man was a Gentleman farmer with hordes of kids and left a small fortune. No, Mary wasn't up to anything norty, she was even older than him and he had only lived next door to her for a few months.

    One of the best was a pesky bloke, landed gentry, big high poobah, no known children, one suspected illegitimate child.

    The illegitimate child I was hoping would be mentioned, wasn't, but after all the family bequests, he left the rest, an enormous sum, to "Harry and Bessie" with absolutely no explanation at all.

    Hunting instincts up, I discovered that Harry and Bessie were his illegitimate children by his second wife, but conceived whilst both were married to other people. Second wife was from a county family too and it doesn't look as though the children ever lived with either of them.

    Harry later died in South Africa and his obituary stated that he was the son of the poobah but did not mention his mother by name even though she was long dead.

    That was well worth £3.50!!!

    Another Will gave me a total of 35 names including married names of daughters, brilliant with a name like GREEN to contend with! Ten pence a name, not bad!

    OC

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    • #3
      They have to be great value , cheaper than a certificate but sometimes with so much more info.

      Ken

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      • #4
        Maiden ladies are my favourites as they leave little mementoes to neices which often gives you their married names.

        We obtained OH's grandfathers will as he remembered it caused great falling out in the 1970s. He left his business to his illegitimate son and split the rest between his one legitimate son and the illegitimate one, cutting out his 3 daughters entirely. (We haven't told the family, don't want to reopen old wounds)

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        • #5
          the one will i was absolutely sure would help failed. :( donald matheson died in 1828, craig, in ross and co. it was 4 pages long, so i assumed it would mention surviving children. it turned out to be an inventory, of who owed him money!! it did however, tell me his wife was still alive in 1830, but there are no burial records, so that doesnt help!!

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          • #6
            Hardly any of my lot left Wills, though I did have a very useful one from 1937 naming a raft of nieces and nephews, which enabled me to move forward in the tricky 20th century.

            Husband's lot are all nicely vague "to my niece Mary" or "to both my sisters". Big help!
            ~ with love from Little Nell~
            Chowns, Dunt, Emms, Mealing, Purvey & Smoothy

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            • #7
              As I said the main person was named as Miss Kathleen Daisy White , she was fairly easy to trace.
              But some of the others were just named Mrs Smith , Mrs White etc , these will not be quite so easy.
              Still this is what makes it so interesting , if they were all easy there would be no need for this forum.

              Ken

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              • #8
                I LOVE wills - many thanks to a post some time ago from OC who was extolling their virtues. I have quite a collection now. Some have helped, some have caused kittens, and one in particular has made me angry but I have to keep reminding myself not to judge my ancestors using today's lax morals as my yardstick!

                Kitten causing: requesting jugular vein to be cut and on another one the discovery of the name of the artist of a portrait which is hanging on the stairs.

                Angry: 2xGt grandfather stating in his will that he has 1 son and 5 five daugthers living! wrong 2 sons 6 daughters living. The two in the USA have obviously been persona non gratia (I know that that should be plural but *hangs head in shame* I don't know what it is!) for years. I did smile at 2xGt grandfather's obit in the BMJ as the last line says:

                "He leaves behind him two sons and six daughters, who deeply mourn the loss of a good man and a good father." I think that this is definitely a work of fiction!
                Bo

                At present: Marshall, Smith, Harding, Whitford, Lane (in and around Winchcomb).

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                • #9
                  I have never applied for a copy of a will.... have no idea of even how to search if one exists. I think it is about time I got up to speed.... I am sure it would assist me.
                  Will search our wiki thingy
                  John

                  Brick wall in Ireland demolished after 25 years! Looking for any more Carrolls of Stradbally Parish, Waterford in particular Thomas Carroll b1861 married Bridget Leavy 1896 in QLD Australia..chipping away!

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                  • #10
                    My best will is that of a childless uncle. I have postcards showing the family were looking after Uncle Edward's interests and boy - did they benefit! He named all his nephews and nieces (married names if necessary) and treated them all exactly the same. This was 1911 and he left them all (25 of them) £500 each I think that would be enough to buy a house in those days!!

                    Anne

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                    • #11
                      My best Wills were Gx4-g-father Charles PAFOOT, and his son, a Gx4-uncle Charles PAFOOT.

                      The senior one demonstrated/confirmed the relationship between the junior one and a woman with my Gx3-g-mother's name. (Ann FOSTER is not a terribly distinctive name.) The junior one made it absolutely clear that I had the right maiden name and marriage for my Gx3-parents, by naming said sister as "wife of". Charles junior and his wife were childless, so there were long lists of carefully-described names for the nephews and nieces, too: gold-dust!

                      Christine
                      Researching: BENNETT (Leics/Birmingham-ish) - incl. Leonard BENNETT in Detroit & Florida ; WARR/WOR, STRATFORD & GARDNER/GARNAR (Oxon); CHRISTMAS, RUSSELL, PAFOOT/PAFFORD (Hants); BIGWOOD, HAYLER/HAILOR (Sussex); LANCASTER (Beds, Berks, Wilts) - plus - COCKS (Spitalfields, Liverpool, Plymouth); RUSE/ROWSE, TREMEER, WADLIN(G)/WADLETON (Devonport, E Cornwall); GOULD (S Devon); CHAPMAN, HALL/HOLE, HORN (N Devon); BARRON, SCANTLEBURY (Mevagissey)...

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                      • #12
                        I found one for an Edward Cox in the same small village where my 3x grt grandfather James Cox lived (I've never been able to find James' baptism). Unfortunately, I can't find a connection to Edward, although my relative is mentioned as a tenant of a house Edward owned. Another will I have of my great uncle mentions somebody who I imagine must be related to him in some way (same surname), but I haven't the slightest idea who she is and can't find out... that's frustrating!
                        Jenny

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                        • #13
                          The best, and most frustating one I have is the Will of John Iliffe, who died in Melbourne in 1902. He left very specific bequests to 42 individuals and about 10 charitable institutions.

                          Of the 42, 12 were relatives - nieces and nephews and sisters, although his illegit. daughter did get a large sum. Most of the legatees were females of various ages and situations. The most curious is the bequest to "the eldest son of Mrs Nancy Grieves, born before her marriage". How on earth do I find out his name, and was he John's natural son ? The total of the bequests was around 14,000 pounds, and the residue was divided among the 12 relatives in varying proportions.

                          Di
                          Diane
                          Sydney Australia
                          Avatar: Reuben Edward Page and Lilly Mary Anne Dawson

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                          • #14
                            that's easy di! find nancy's death. either get the cert and find her maiden name, or find a marriage of a mr grieves to an anne/nancy. then look for births under her maiden name.

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                            • #15
                              hi Kylejustin

                              Tried all that, no Grieves (any spelling) married to Nancy or Ann in NSW, (Nancy's address was given as Bathurst NSW).

                              No death for Nancy (Ann, Hannah, Nance) Grieves (any spelling, Greaves, Greive, etc). in NSW or Victoria. Her NSW death certificate should give all her childrens names anyway, as well as her marriages.

                              As his daughter Ada was born in 1869, I tend to think that if the son was also John Iliffes son, he may have been born around the same time. From the will and its codicils, I think he knew that everyone was still alive in 1902, but cannot be absolutely sure.

                              Some of the others are equally difficult "Mrs Phoebe McDonald of Menagong near Young", "Sarah Lawson of Kiewa Vic, Spinster" and "Annie Elizabeth Dempsey, nurse, of Albury". Its difficult to establish exactly who these women were, as none died in the towns they lived in at the time of the Will. And WHY did John Iliffe leave them 50 or 100 pounds ?

                              Perhaps the Probate records from Melbourne might give a list of those who eventually received money and where it was sent for them.

                              Di

                              Di
                              Diane
                              Sydney Australia
                              Avatar: Reuben Edward Page and Lilly Mary Anne Dawson

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                              • #16
                                My best and worse Will is the same one. Dinah Sadd duly listed all her relations and their spouses. Marvellous. Then she mentioned her daughter Sarah, leaving her £x. Sarah was, I thought my 3xgt grandmother, and I had "killed her off" 20 years before. Yes, I'd been following the wrong family

                                I still don't know Sarah Sadd's pob, parents etc:(
                                Sue

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                                • #17
                                  di, have you got the probate from the victorian public records site?

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                                  • #18
                                    hi Kylejustin

                                    No not yet, the will itself is digitised, but not the probate papers (just checked again). For other wills, the probate papers are digitised but not the actual wills. So its a bit of pot luck and waiting. I guess I could always pay for a hard copy !!

                                    But I was having fun trying to figure them out myself.

                                    Di
                                    Diane
                                    Sydney Australia
                                    Avatar: Reuben Edward Page and Lilly Mary Anne Dawson

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                                    • #19
                                      just wait for 'em di. they'll be there soon!

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                                      • #20
                                        I went to the Tasmanian Archives today to get copies of my husbands grandparents and further back.

                                        Some of them only said they left everything to their wives.

                                        But his great great grandfathers will names all six of his sons.....and the names of the properties left to each son.......along with the names of the person he bought the properties off and how much he paid........this will alone made up for all the non-information the other will had.

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