When it comes to fitting family members into their respective places on the family tree, we often rely on resources such as census records, baptism records, etc. to help build family groupings and confirm parent/child relationships, but the further back in history we go, particularly pre-census times, the harder it becomes to confirm these family relationships. This is where wills come in handy.
Ancient wills and transcriptions are not always easy to work with, but I have grown to love them, even though at times they can be exhausting to try to decipher, especially when they are long and drawn out. Wills often contain precious tidbits of information that connect siblings, parents, grandparents, uncles, cousins, and many other people. Even still, one should be cautious in relying solely on a will’s information, in a literal context, for familial connections, and be open to viewing that context through the broader lens of the particular era, level of literacy, education, and so forth, that is to say:
- a stated sister/brother may sometimes be a sister/brother-in-law
- a stated daughter/son may sometimes be a daughter/son-in-law
- a stated mother/father-in-law may sometimes be a step mother/father
- a stated daughter/son-in-law may sometimes be a step daughter/son
- a stated cousin may sometimes be any relative outside the immediate family
- a stated aunt/uncle may sometimes be the aunt/uncle of a spouse or a great aunt/uncle
- a stated Mrs may sometimes be a Miss
- a stated Senior/Junior or Elder/Younger may sometimes be a relation other than father/son (uncle/nephew, cousins, etc.)
This list is not all inclusive, of course, but you get the idea. It’s also important to remember that the majority of the wills we have access to are abstracts or transcriptions of varying quality; seldom do we have the opportunity to see an original document. As a result, we are subject to the interpretations of those who have transcribed before us, which may or may not have inaccuracies, meaning, that stated sister may actually say sister-in-law in the original document but was smudged or illegible.
Because of these variations in family descriptives, as well as possible clerical/transcription inaccuracies, it’s important to keep an open mind and treat wills as a resource for familial clues and then to document, source, and map out each family relation with as many records as possible to establish the family unit.
If you have reached a brick wall in your line, try researching wills. They just might provide the clues you need to break through it.