Update: Will book 1 appears to be appended to the end of the Index image set. It’s not available in the drop down menu. It starts on slide 539/813, right page. They should put will book 1 in it’s own group.

Update2: I dove in again this evening and found the will records mostly useable. There were still a few hiccups with the Ancestry image display tool not responding to mouse clicks periodically, but those were easily resolved by refreshing the page. I feel like I was able to find what I was looking for. Maybe something is working the way it should now? Maybe I have brain issues? Could be both.

FamilySearch.org also has these records:

https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/275016?availability=Family%20History%20Library

As my research has taken me into 1730-1750’s Brunswick Co, VA, I have been looking for quality primary records from this time and place.

I’ve found some quality source citations on WikiTree.com that referred to an image set on Ancestry.com internally titled:

“Virginia, Wills and Probate Records, 1652-1983”

Inside this record source is a Brunswick Co, VA book internally titled:

“General Index to Wills, Inventories, Or Sales, 1732-1948”

The volume labels in the slides describe the dataset as:

“Brunswick County Virginia, General Index to Wills Etc, Vol. A, 1732-1948”
“Brunswick County Virginia, General Index to Deeds, Vol. A, 1732 – 1881”
“Brunswick County Virginia, Deeds Wills Etc. No. 1, with Inventories & Accounts, 1732-1740”

The first thing to notice about these volumes is that you can not find them via a regular Card Catalog search on Ancestry.com (at least I haven’t been able to). I think I’ve discovered why (they’re digitally broken, kinda), but that’s just part of this story. I’ve also seen reports that these image sets have been taken down at sometime and then made available again. I do not believe these are searchable at the moment either.

The slide set is a total of 813 slides. Images 6, 133, and 537-539 are indices to the volumes. However, there are some bugs with this image set.

I’ve found that if you navigate with the filmstrip view, you will jump around the images out of sequence, and in one case it looked like it was a completely different image set. I do see the “Order Book, Vol 39, 1850-1868; Order Book, Vol 40, 1868-1872; Order Book, Vol 41, 1872-1875” follows slide 813, so that may be what I’m seeing. If you navigate these images, use only the left/right arrows in the main window, or directly enter the slide number.

This presents a challenge, however. The slide numbers are not easily linked to a specific page number of the volumes. This is what I hope to present on this page.

Brunswick County Virginia, General Index to Wills Etc, Vol. A, 1732-1948

I have found that the index on image 6/813 refers to the Wills volume.

I have found that slides 59 (pp 128-129) to 70 (pp 156-157) are duplicates of 44 (pp 128-129) to 54 (pp 156-157).

Image 54 is the end of the K index and 55 is the TBC slide.

It appears this first volume was split into two slide sets and a “To be continued” slide was a place holder for where the following “Continued” slide picks up with image 56.

Here are the slide number to page number mappings:

=======FILM/======
3/813 = “FILM NO. 513”
4/813 = “Brunswick County Virginia, General Index to Wills Etc., Vol. A, 1732-1948”
6/813 = Index page numbers by letter
7/813 = 1 begin A index (use arrows in image and not filmstrip to navigate. there appears to be a bug).
9/813 = 4 end of A index, 5 blank
10/183 = 10 blank, 11 begin B index
14/813 = use arrows in image and not filmstrip to navigate. there appears to be a bug.
18/813 = 26, 27 end of B index
19/813 = can’t see pg numbers, begin C index
24/813 = end of C index
25/813 = begin D index
28/813 = 58, 59 end D index
29/813 = 66 blank, 67 begin E index
32/813 = 72, 73 end E index
33/813 = 92 begin F index
35/813 = 96 end F index
36/813 = 106 blank, 107 begin G index
39/813 = 112, 113 end G index
40/813 = 122 begin H index
48/813 = 138, 139 end H index
49/813 = 144 all of I index
50/813 = 148 begin J index
54/813 = 156 end J index, 157
55/813 = TBC
======duplicate/========
57/813 = “Brunswick County Virginia, General Index to Wills Etc, Vol. A, 1732-1948”
59/813 = 128 duplicate partial H index?, 129
64/813 = 138, 139 end of duplicate partial H index
65/813 = 144 duplicate I index, 145 blank
66/813 = 148 begin duplicate J index
70/813 = 156 end J index, 157
======/duplicate========
71/813 = 164 blank, 165 begin K index
73/813 = 168, 169 end K index
74/813 = 180 begin L index
78/813 = 188 end L index, 189 blank
79/813 = 196 being M index, 197 blank
87/813 = 212 end M index, 213 blank
88/813 = 216 begin N index, 217 end N index
89/813 = 222 blank, 223 begin O index
90/813 = 224 end O index, 225 blank
91/813 = 230 blank, 231 begin P index
97/813 = 242 end P index, 243 blank
98/813 = 248 blank, 249 all of Q index
99/813 = 252 being R index
102/813 = 258, 259 end of R index
103/813 = 266 blank, 267 begin S index
111/813 = 282, 283 end of S index
113/813 = 288 begin T index, 289
116/813 = 296, 297 end T index
117/813 = 302 blank, 303 begin V index
118/813 = 304 end V index, 305 blank
119/813 = 308 blank, 309 begin W index
127/813 = 324 end of W index, 325 blank
128/813 = 326 blank, 327 all of Y index
129/813 = 328 all of Z index, film END

Brunswick County Virginia, General Index to Deeds, Vol. A, 1732-1881

The index on 133/813 shows the page numbers for the Deeds volume. The issue with this is there are multiple index pages for the same letter. Each range contains unique information.

These page numbers refer to the number in the top left or right hand corner of the actual page image. Looks like there are around 790 pages.

=======/FILM======
130/813 = “FILM NO. JR 514”
131/813 = “Brunswick County Virginia, General Index to Deeds, Vol. A, 1732-1881”
133/813 = Index by page number range and letter. There are muliple page groups for the same letter.
134/813 = blank, 1 begin A index
142/813 = 16, 17 end of A index
things get confusing from here on down, and stay that way
143/813 = 20 begin J index? (says from page 309?, K index begins on 310), 21
146/813 = 26, end of previous J index, begins B index, 27
160/813 – started having issues navigating here, had to refresh page in browser
172/813 = 18, 79 end of B index
173/813 = 80 begin C index, 81
197/813 = 128, 129 end of C index
198/813 = 130 begin D index, 131
213/813 = 158, 159 end of D index
214/813 = 160 being E index, 161
223/813 = 178, 179 end of E index
224/813 = 180 begin F index, 181
231/813 = 194, 195 end of F index
232/813 = 196 blank, 197 additional D index begin
233/813 = 198 additional D index end, 199 blank
234/813 = 200 begin G index, 201
248/813 = 228, 229 end of G index
249/813 = 230 begin H index, 231
268/813 = 268, 269 end of H index
269/813 = 270, begin I index, 271
271/813 = 274, end I index, 275 being additional E index
272/813 = 276, 277 end additional E index
273/813 = 280, begin J index, 281
287/813 = 308, 209 end J index
288/813 = 310 begin K index, 311
295/813 = 324 end of K index, 325 begin L index
310/813 = 354 end L index, 355 begin M index
332/813 = 398, 399 end of M index
333/813 = 400 begin N index, 401
343/813 = 418, 419 end N index
344/813 = 420 begin O index, 421
348/813 = 428 end of O index, 429 begin additional M index
353/813 = 438 end of additional M index, 439 blank
354/813 = 440 begin P index, 441
376/813 = 484 end P index, 485 begin Q index
377/813 = 486 end Q index, all of an additional K index, 487
378/813 = 488 begin additional P index, 489
379/813 = 490, 491 end additional P index
380/813 = 492 begin additional C index, 493
381/813 = 494 end of C index, 495 begin R index
399/813 = 530, 531 end of R index (missing 532 and 533)
400/813 = 534 blank, 535 begin G index
401/537 = 536, end G index, 537 begin B index
407/813 = 548 end f B index, 549 blank
408/813 = 550 start of S index, 551
437/813 = 608, 609 end of S index
438/813 = 610 begin T index
464/813 = 662 end of T index, 663 blank (no U or V index?)
465/813 = 666 begin W index
466/813 = 668 end W index, 669 begin additional S index
469/813 = 674, 675 end additional S index
470/813 = 678 begin additional H index, 679 end additional H index
471/813 = 680 all of U index, 681 begin additional L index
475/813 = 688, 689 end of additional L index
476/813 = 690 begin V index, 691
479/813 = 696 end of V index, 697 blank
480/813 = 700 begin additional H index, 701
489/813 = 718, 719 end of additional H index
490/813 = 720 begin W index, 721
517/813 = 774 end of W index, 775 begin Y index
518/813 = 776 end of Y index, 777 blank
519/813 = 778 begin additional W index, 779
524/813 = 788, 789 end of additional W index
525/813 = 790 end of Z index, 791 begin H index
532/813 = 804 end H index, “END” slide

Brunswick County Virginia, Deeds Wills Etc. No. 1, with Inventories & Accounts, 1732-1740

This next set of images is pretty large. It is of original will and estate records from old Brunswick Co, VA.

The index images are done by individual name and there appear to be a very large number of documents.

The best I can suggest with this set is to carefully read the names in the index. The page numbers should correlate, but I have not independently verified this.

=======/FILM======
533/813 = “FILM NO. JR 515”
534/813 = “Brunswick County Virginia, Deeds Wills Etc. No. 1, with Inventories & Accounts, 1732-1740”
537/813 = Index image 1
538/813 = Index image 2
539/813 = Index image 3

Now, to actually put these indices to use and find the documents I want to examine. I may need to figure out if the volumes are labeled right in the Ancestry.com system. Something still doesn’t seem right.

For example, I have a copy of the Roger Smith d. 1735 Brunswick Co, VA will. He was Eadis Smith’s father. I see it spanned pages 246/247 in a volume, but I did not make a note of which volume this came from last time I found it. You would think I should be able to find it again, yes?

Looking at the index for the will book, I see on slide 103 on page 267 that Roger Smith’s will is in Deed Book 1, Folio (page) 246. Let’s see how hard it is to find this thing using the index.

At the top of the image viewer is an drop down menu.

For notes, the link I found for Roger’s will came from the sources here:

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Smith-178190

This tinyurl takes me to Will Books, Vol 4-5, 1761-1795. Wait, didn’t he die in 1735?

Let’s look for will book 1. I can’t find it.

The only image set for this year is “Brunswick County Virginia, Order Book No. 1, 1732-1741”. Let’s see if we can find it here. I literally have the image file, but I can’t find Will Book 1 for some reason. Weird.

Interesting, the index for this book begins with C’s on 6/852, and those start at page 303. Something seems off.

He’s there:

So something is correct….

If Will Book 1 is missing, why was I able to find the image of old Roger Smith’s will?

Good luck!

-Chris