Tuesday, October 25, 2016

You Never Know What Hint You're Going to Get!

I was happy to see an Ancestry Hint for my 8th great-grandfather, Francis Bloetgood (1630-1676), in my list of recent Record Hints today.  I immediately clicked on it and saw the record summary:


It's from the New York County, New York, Wills and Probate Records, 1658-1880 (NYSA) database.

 I thought "cool" and checked my RootsMagic database to determine if I already had the record.  Nope.  Then I thought "cool, one more probate record to transcribe and attach to my family tree."

I eagerly clicked on the record image thumbnail and saw:


Hmmm.  It's not a will (on the left-hand page), it's the granting of administration to the widow, Elizabeth.  A closer reading indicated that there was a will.  Where is it?

Recalling that Ancestry.com doesn't always index every probate record for a person, and names can be spelled differently, I went back to the Search screen and entered the name with wild cards, e.g. fran* blo*go* because I know that the spelling of names varies significantly for these early New York Dutch persons.  Here are the search results:


There are three matches, two of them dated 13 Jan 1676.  The first match is the administration record above (indexed as "Francis Bloetgood").  The third match is from 1744, so that is not my ancestor.

The second match, indexed as "Francis Bloodgood" led me to the will.  Here is the cover page:


And the will is on the next image:


Just a one page document.  But it's a will and that's what's important.

I'm glad I checked the Record hints this afternoon.  You never know what Hints Ancestry.com is going to provide.

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