A special THANKS to Melody Reissen for this page which supplements the Wills page put online by John and Nancy Moss.
These Wills are from the first roll of the FHC microfilm. Melody will index all three rolls of the wills in the next couple of months. Together, the three rolls will cover Wills from 1847 to 1913.
These microfilms are copies of the original bound Will Books currently found at the Clinton County, IL Circuit Clerk's office. A clerk probably copied all of the original Wills into these books for preservation, thanks to that unknown clerk. That clerk could have made a small transcribing error, but the work seems to be pretty accurate. Some of the original Wills could be in a probate box in the Circuit Clerk’s office in Carlyle. The Clerk does not do probate look-ups at this time, you could go there and request to look at a probate box. You might get nothing, you might get a whole lot of goodies. He will publish an index to the probate boxes in a year or two.
If the name appears on Melody’s index, you may ask for a copy of the Will. Melody will make a copy of the page and mail it to you. Cost of the copying, envelope and postage, for a short Will is $2.00. If the Will is longer it may cost more. Melody will tell you before she copies it, unless you give her carte blanche ahead of time. You are encouraged to then type your ancestor’s Will and send it to Dorothy Falk for inclusion on the Wills Page. Just follow one of Melody’s examples, you may type it in an email or in a Word format. If you’d rather not type it, let Melody know and she might do it. If you already have a copy of a Clinton County Will, you are welcomed to type and send that one to Carol, and to Melody so she knows it’s been typed.
No changes have been made to the original spelling or verbage. The flavor of the time has been retained.
This file last modified 21 July 2008