Historic Online Wills

How would you like to see historic online wills? How would you like to read the wills of your favorite American heroes, villains, and celebrities? Thanks to Internet technology, you can.

Thanks to Ancestry.com, you can see wills and other family details of America’s most famous and infamous. You can choose from any era, from Colonial times to the 21st century. They’ve digitize such records of 100 million Americans, whether they were famous or not. These records are even more personal than any memoirs ever written. These records contain wealth and possessions and power that followed them long after they’d pass away. What they left to whom said a lot about their family relations. American Revolution hero Paul Revere had 16 kids with two wives, but by the time Revere died, only five were still alive. According to his last will and testament, he left all his furniture to one unmarried daughter. Nineteenth century abolitionist and author Harriet Beecher Stowe left railroad stock and a Florida orange grove to her son. Cotton gin inventor Eli Whitney had one son, but left $1,000 each to two nephews. Whitney died in 1825; keep in mind how much $1,000 was worth. You can find a lot more from these wills and records.

I’ve always been a huge history buff. I believe history is important for all of us. If we forget history, we’re doomed to repeat it. Ancestry.com is offering quite a history lesson here. These documents and wills pose a lot of questions. These are questions like, “Why did Eli Whitney leave $1,000 to his nephews and not his son? What did he leave his son? What were the relationship dynamics in the family at that time? If Revere left all that furniture to one daughter, what did he leave to his other living children?” Which historic figure would you like to look up on Ancestry.com?