abstracted by Mary Hoit Abbe
The following chart for Clarke County Will Books A, B, C, and D gives the name of the testator, will book, and page number on which the will is located. The column labeled Mixed Records & Returns/Notes indicates the locations of the administration, inventory, appraisal, and sale of the estate. The amount of information contained there varies from estate to estate. Columns 1 and 2 indicate if there are loose papers. When court proceedings took place, bills, vouchers, receipts, affidavits, etc were filed; some of these papers have survived. Unlike the record in books, these loose records contain the handwriting and signature of the person-not that of the clerk. Column 3 indicates that there is a marriage listed for that person. A separate page houses the index for Will Book E.
Source and location information as well as an explanation of columns 1, 2, and 3 can be found at the bottom of this page.
Sources and further comments:
Wills in Books A & B have been abstracted and published in Abstracts of Georgia Wills, Volume 1 [of 2] by Jeannette Holland Austin.
The will books are in the probate judge’s vault at the courthouse in Athens, Georgia. The original wills are also there. This area is accessible during regular business hours. The microfilms [2 reels] of the will books are at the Athens Regional Library Heritage Room and the Georgia State Archives; images are available online at FamilySearch.org. Use the index above to help you find the image you need or use the FamilySearch Georgia Probate Records search page (a link to browse the images is located at the bottom of the search page).
Both the books of returns & mixed records and the loose papers are in the records vault at the courthouse in Athens. This room is not open on a reliable schedule. Both the books and the loose papers in column 1 have been microfilmed and the microfilm is available at the Athens Regional Library Heritage Room and the Georgia State Archives; images are available online at FamilySearch.org.
An index to the books of returns & mixed records is available on this website. These books of annual returns and mixed records 1799-1956 are on 27 reels; images are available online at FamilySearch.org.
The entries (not the documents) in column 1 can be found in the book Records of Clarke County, Georgia, 1801-1892 by Robert Scot Davis.
The loose papers in column 2 were organized by volunteers in 2000, but they have not been microfilmed and are inconvenient to see in the records vault at the Clarke County Courthouse. The microfilm status of Clarke County Probate Records is available online as part of the Clarke County Probate Court Records Finding Aid.
The marriages indicated in column 3 were taken from the book Clarke County, Georgia, Marriage Records, 1803-1909 by Faye Stone Poss and Ted O. Brooke, 2001.
©2002 Mary Hoit Abbe
Clarke-Oconee Genealogical Society 