WILLS - SOME QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
After dealing with assorted "versions" of the wills of Johan Peter Lenhart (JPL) and his son Wilhelm (William) Lenhart, I had several questions that were answered by ROBERT L. RIFFLE on the RootsWeb Lenhart List in November 2001. The following is a consolidation of the postings (with some minor edits); for more context, see the footnotes at the end of JPL's Will and Wilhelm's Will. As always, many thanks to ROBERT L. RIFFLE for his generous assistance.
<< 1) ss Ss Fs - this appears at the end of documents e.g.,
York County ss. Are those letters ss Ss Fs ? Do you know what they
represent? I've seen ss in contemporary documents.>>
S.S. an abbreviation for the Latin phrase "Supra Scriptum", meaning "as
written above". It was a legal phrase used to avoid repetition in long
documents. Some times it is in lower case letters: ss: or s.s.:
<< 2) What does one call the section after the will - and after death - in
which additional info is written? Do I call it the probate section, the
administrative section, the affirmation section? The post will section? >>
This is the part where the will is Proved. So the date of this part
is usually shortly after the death of the testator. Some times this part may
include other things besides just the witnesses to the signing of the will.
They may also be executors and an Appraiser may be sworn and usually Letters
Testamentary are given at this time to the executors. Sometimes this later
part is listed as a Memorandum.
<< 3) Sometimes I see people using Filed date or Probated date. Is there a
difference? Can "probate" also be used in place of "filed" - i.e., is
filing part of the probate process? >>
Yes, there is a big difference. A will is ambulatory, subject to being
altered, it isn't really binding so long as the person is still alive,
meaning it speaks as of the moment of death. Placing a will in probate makes
it a matter of public record, so the person must be dead. But they don't need
to be deceased at the time of filing. It can be read or copied by anyone after
Probate. A will is filed most often in advance. Probate is To Prove,
meaning a document which purports to be really is that of the deceased. If
the witness can't be found at the signing of the will then other people
familiar with the testator's signature are usually found. If it is in
"common form" Probate can continue without notice to the legal heirs. But I
believe the heirs still have the right to contest for a period of time.
<< 4) In some cases, Nan's transcriptions include "A true copy" statement
c.f. to my versions - I don't see that. In the case of JPL and Wilhelm, my
copies (obtained in the last two years from the York Archives) have
signatures of JPL and Wilhelm that look like the real thing. I sent her a
copy of my JPL and she said that was his sig - but her material is in storage
and hence she can't readily compare the two. I'm wondering how they handle
the signature when the will is copied for probate purposes - hence providing
a quick clue a to whether or not one has the orig or a copy. Do they just
sign it - or print it - or ???? >>
Scribes had an important and well paid jobs in centuries past. A good one
could live in the middle class world, easily. They copied the signatures very
precisely since the signatures had to be identified by people that knew what
they looked like. They were drawn exactly or as close as possible. The
original would most likely be a loose copy which at one time was folded and
had a wax seal on it and some times embossed seals. After they were proved
stamps were issued and sometimes pasted onto them. Since the executors had
to pay for these stamps to get the letters they needed.
Scribes could make many copies if needed but there was a price. In some
counties in Southeastern Pa., Wills in German were not allowed to be recorded
and were kept folded. The English were afraid the German would become the
common language so abstracts were sometimes recorded in the books in place of
the full text version. Some counties only got around to transcribing these
wills in the late 1800 and early 1900s. In some ways this is good if the
county kept the originals after they were finally translated and transcribed
into the books. This also means that some indexes for counties will have a
much later section that may deal with these. It isn't that big of a problem
at a county courthouse but on a LDS film it can get confusing.
Some times these papers have court copy written on them, if an extra copy
was made. Usually, an extra copy was made to go to the second executor if
there were two and it was a large estate.
<< 5) If one is ordering a will, how does one assure one has the "original" -
is there a different set of books or registers? This may vary from county to
county - you may not know the answer to that. My copy of Wilhelm's will
states Recorded in Book N. 14; entries in a Closson Press publication list
(from Nan) list it as being in Vol 0 - both list page 182. Rinkenbach refers
to "Register of Wills" - and I don't know what that is either. >>
Register of Wills is where the court copy or original will be at the court
house if the original has survived. Often after being copied to the register
the original was eventually discarded by some counties after the legal time
had lapsed to contest the will. But some have been kept in file folders.
Some counties have had to make more than one copy of the register since the
first may have worn out. And some have been transcribed out of the original
scribed work to a more readable form and the writing looks modern since the
time to contest these early ones was well over. When written in modern
cursive they take up way more space and the volumes get thrown off.
Another reason the volumes get thrown off is because the German Wills were
recorded much later and may end up in the books 100 years or more later. But
often there will be an abstract made in English at the time of the original.
Robert
<< 6) Does all of this vary from county to county?
In the case of JPL - it seems that Nancy has two versions and I have a
third. I had no idea there could be so many versions of one will . >>
The one with the seals and or stamps and embossing is the original. None of
the Registers or books would be the original. The wills were always
transcribed into the books.
Follow question from Nancy:
<< From what I gathered...most of the time we get can get a photocopy of a
copy...with the original having gone to storage. So none of us gets a copy
of the original.
This is most likely, but the early court copies were very accurately
copied.
GKBopp 7 May 2002.