Wills and Estate Records Index

Overview

This is an index of estate administration records, including wills, inventories, sales, and other documents, from 1633 to 1800, found in the will books of fifty-one Virginia counties and cities. In some cases, estate records found in county order books and other records are also indexed. For a few localities, the index includes records issued after 1800.

Some entries include the Library of Virginia’s microfilm reel number. Most of the microfilm may be borrowed through interlibrary loan. 

Search Tips

• Searches may include names, date document was recorded, county/city name, and information source. Note: On some entries county is abbreviated as Co.
• Some records are indexed by last name only. In particular, guardian accounts will often only have the last name of the deceased, but will have the ward’s full name in the notes.
• Using quotes around phrases may return fewer, more relevant results.
• Boolean operators OR, NOT and AND written in ALL CAPS may be used. By default, all search terms will be combined with the AND operator. To exclude terms, use the NOT operator before a term.
• Wildcards can be used to find variant spellings or words. The question mark (?) will match any one character. For instance, "Ols?n" will match "Olsen" or "Olson". The asterisk (*) will match any number of characters (including zero). "Ch*ter" will match "Charter", "Character", and "Chapter", and "Temp*" will match "Temptation", "Temple", and "Temporary".

Counties and Cities Indexed

Related Resources

Pippenger, Wesley E. Index to Virginia Estates, 1800–1865. Richmond: Virginia Genealogical Society, 2001–2010. This is a 10-volume set organized by geographic region.

No state-wide index has been compiled for estate records after 1865. Counties and independent cities indexed their own records, and these are often available on microfilm. See A Guide to Virginia City and County Records on Microfilm for available indexes.

Revised February 2021