This was an unplanned project - my original intention was to search for my families and return the film. But within the first few frames it soon became evident the records were full of strays. Hopefully, some of them may find homes.
In places the film was nearly impossible to read - that accounts for the brevity of some of the extracts & "?" in others.
Also, there were a variety of handwriting styles - one recorder linked the last digit of the year to the up-stroke of the first letter of the very next word - please double check dates.
I've extracted the Testaments with as much integrity as possible. And have deliberately avoided "correcting" even obvious spelling mistakes. The original recorder had his difficulties as in some Testaments there were multiple spellings of the same surnames & place names.
For some of the longer extracts it was difficult working out the exact relationships as there was a distinct lack of punctuation.
There are two ways in which the extracts may benefit your research:-
a) by a direct match
b) eliminating persons with like names
MLN Testaments:-
The Edinburgh Commissariot Court confirmed Testaments (Wills) for the counties of Midlothian (MLN), East Lothian (ELN), West Lothian (WLN) parts of Peebleshire (PEE), parts of Stirlingshire (STI) & Scots who died abroad.
I named my extractions MLN Testaments as the microfilms can be found under the Midlothian section of the Locality Catalogue for Scotland.
In some instances Testaments were confirmed decades after the death of the individual. Therefore it would be advisable to take a broad approach to dates.
If a match is found the researcher is advised to refer back to the
origianl record:-
a) to check accuracy
b) to gather extra information
Abbreviations:-
| chn | children |
| Co | County |
| d | died |
| dau | daughter |
| dec | deceased |
| Edin | Edinburgh |
| E.I.C. | East India Company |
| H.E.I.C. | Honorable East India Company |
| husb | husband |
| mercht | merchant |
| nr | near |
| Par | Parish |
| res | residing |
| sp | spouse |
| S.S.C. | Solicitor of Supreme Court |
| wid | widow |
| W.S. | Writer to the Signet |
Terms:-
| defunct | deceased |
| relict | widow |
| brother german | full brother |
| sister german | full sister |
I am unable to furnish any extra details regarding particular entries. Microfilms can be ordered via Family History Centres (FHC).
Or alternatively, photocopies can be obtained from the Scottish Record
Office (SRO). Contact them for charges - usually so much per page - the
price would depend on the length of the Testament. The address is:-
Scottish Record Office,
HM General Register House,
Edinburgh EH1 3YY
janice_poskitt at yahoo.com
Motueka, New Zealand
The transcriber (Janice) has, in a few places, in addition to inserting question marks where the original was illegible and [sic] where one might query the correctness of the transcription, inserted some of her own words as comments. Where I have been able to identify such, I have presented them in italics.
Due to the enormous size of the data present here, it has been found not possible to keep it in the same order as in the original document. It has therefore been split into sections, alphabetical per surname. Note that, if a single entry contains several surnames, the entry will be present for each inital letter for each surname.
| A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I,J | K | L | M | Mc | N,O | P | Q,R | S | T | U,V,W,Y |
| A | B | C | D | E,F | G | H | I,J,K | L | M | Mc | N,O | P | R | S | T | U,V,W,Y,Z |