Abstracts of Stanly County, North Carolina, Will Book II, Introduction

Abstracts of Stanly County, North Carolina, Will Book II, 1868-1910, Introduction

Introduction

When there are three dots (. . .) that means that some text has been omitted.

There are typical statements in most wills that contain the following:

1. the testator's name.

2. the testator's county of residence.

3. statement of health or sound mind and memory.

4. statement concerning burial.

5. statement about paying just debts.

These statements have been omitted unless:

1. the testator's name differs in spelling in various places in the will, then the all spellings are extracted.

2. if a town is mentioned or if the county is not Stanly.

3. there is a notation of bad health, such as "in feeble health".

4. burial information is included there is reference to a location, another person's grave, or information about material or price of tombstones.

Words in brackets [] are added for clarity and are not in the text itself.

If there is a [?] in the will text that means that the word preceding the [?] was difficult to decipher and might be extracted incorrectly.

I decided not to add [sic] after the numerous misspellings in the will text, so any misspellings in the will extraction are in the original will text.

If there are two versions of a witness or executor/executrix's name, than that name is separated by a /.

Example:

Witnesses: W. Smith [will]/William Smith [probate]

This indicates that the name of the witness was W. in the will text, but was written as William when the will was probated.

Information relating to the will and probate in separated by a ;.

Example:

Executor: William Smith [will]; John Smith [probate]

This indicates that William Smith was named as the executor in the will, but John Smith was the executor or exhibited the will when the will was probated.

Money amounts were usually written with the last two digits superscripted and no period separating dollars and cents. I have added a period instead of superscripting the last two digits.

When text is superscripted between two lines of text, I have added ^^ around the superscripted text.

Even though these wills were probated after 1868, several wills mention slaves, who can be found under SLAVES in the index. The surname of their owner is added in parentheses after their first name.

I have also listed any churches or schools mentioned under CHURCHES or SCHOOLS in the index.

Women are found under the surname that they are mentioned by in the will. For example of John Smith's will mentioned daughter Mary Brown, then she is indexed under Brown, with her maiden name in parentheses.

Example:

BROWN

Mary (Smith)

I have also placed any titles, such as Mrs. or J. P. in the same format. Example:

SMITH

Mary (Mrs.)

Also if there are two individuals in the same will with the same name, I have added information in parentheses to distinguish the two persons.

Example:

SMITH

John (testator): Will of John Smith, p. 1

John (son of John): Will of John Smith, p. 1

I encourage the users of this abstract to check the original record.

Wills can be ordered from the NC Archives.

Please do not send copy requests to me. I am not a copying service.

If mistakes are found, please let me know at lcsims@eskimo.com