This book contains wills that range in date from Martin Coulter's will written on May 25, 1817 to Joseph Carpenter's will dated August 13, 1867. This book provides more than lists of names found in other abstract books. A researcher can extract valuable clues when identifying important family factors, such as: occupation, military service, family situations, health, state of mind, wealth, location within the county, ownership of land in other counties or states, religious affiliation, and personalities. There were different types of wills a testator could make. The holographic will is written, dated, and signed entirely in his (or her) own handwriting. The nuncupative will is an oral will that is later reduced to writing (usually declared on the sick or death bed). A codicil provides for additions to or subtractions from an original will. This will is used when property bequeathed has been received or sold off during the testator's life, if additional children are born, if a wife or child dies, or if additional property is acquired. Although the wills are not in chronological order, they are in the order they were recorded by the County Clerk of Court. Wills written before the county was formed out of Lincoln County in 1842 state, "of Lincoln County, State of North Carolina." A full-name index and a slave index add to the value of this work.
Elizabeth Bray Sherrill
(1994), 2012, 5.5" x 8.5", paper, index, 130 pp.
ISBN: 9780788400421
101-S0042
