Gene Notes

Some random and some not-so-random thoughts on family history.

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

With My Own Hands!

If you aren't into family history (why are you reading this blog?) you might not understand the awe I felt at being handed a folder at the Stewart Bell, Jr. Archives at the Handley Regional Library in Winchester, Virginia that contained the original handwritten will of my great-great-great-great-great grandfather George Bowman. OMG! The librarian was kind enough to put it in a protective cover to make photocopying it easier. Since everything is copyrighted, it is copied on special paper. You know what? I don't care. I am thrilled to own a photocopy that I made myself. The will was written in 1764 and a codicil added to it in 1766 with a provision regarding his daughter, Mary Bowman Stephens.

The will was proved in 1768. George was the son-in-law of Joist Hite and one of the settlers who came to the Shenandoah Valley in 1732.

Copyright 2011, ACK for Gene Notes

1 comment:

  1. I totally get your thrill! Seeing an ancestor's handwriting brings a part of them alive -- and back to 1764! I recently discovered the actual handwritten records from the 1700s in a Gerstheim (Alsace) church microfilm file of my ancestor's marriage and then birth of the child who then departed at less than a year in 1770 from Gerstheim to Hungary (now Romania) whence my grandparents emigrated to America 100 years ago, 1911.

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