There is perhaps no class of record to be named which can be regarded as of greater value to the genealogist than are wills. These documents usually give information respecting the testator's own family and his kindred, which seldom can be elsewhere obtained, and in any case indeed it may be said that rarely can any pedigree of more than two or three generations be compiled without reference to them.
But It is only within the last thirty years that any organised steps have been taken to render these invaluable records generally accessible to the public. Until then reference to them was singularly difficult, for not only were the records themselves scattered in various repositories, but the indexes thereto were often very inadequate, and indeed not seldom inaccurate and untrustworthy. Moreover, access to them was fenced off by fees, which had to be paid before they could be consulted. The institution of a literary department in the Principal Probate Registry in London, at first limited in date to 1700, and nowavailable for all wills older than one hundred years from the current date, was a boon greatly appreciated by genealogists.
