52 Ancestors, 52 Weeks Week 9

Where There's a Will

Lilly Library  Frank M. Hohenberger Photograph Collectionon

This one is hard for me. Wills are not the thing I love to get. For me, I'd rather have a nice long obituary. Most of my people have very short wills, or die intestate. I've found that with wills, you don't always get a lot of information, such as an inventory list that would come with an ancestor dying intestate.

I have been transcribing the will of Henry Hovis, Sr. of late. It's a large, hand-written document which starts by leaving all his property both real and personal to his beloved wife, Sarah (Hoke/Hogg). He then dictates where the property will go upon her death. It is split up among all his children, and one grandson, William Bohall, but with some restrictions. His personal property divided equally among them all. I already knew where the land was, and who lived on it later. I knew the names of all his children, and their families. The only surprise was his leaving his grandson some of his land.

The photo is the Hovis family cabin located in Brown County, Indiana. I don't know if it still stands.

William Bohall is actually, John William Bohall, son of Mary Ellen Hovis and John Dudley Bohall. I don't know where the land was that he inherited, so that is something I need to find out. I do know he died in Jackson County, not Brown County. Some of Henry Sr. land was in Jackson. So it does inspire me to find the answer to that question. I'll see if I can find anything in the newspapers that would hint at what the relationship was with his grandfather.

I am only mentioning this will because it is on my desktop and being worked on right now. Reading handwriting is a pain sometimes. There are a couple of words I am having a problem with, so I go over it several times, trying to get it right.

#52Ancestors #genealogy

Sources:
Photo: Lilly Library  Frank M. Hohenberger Photograph Collection 1928. 
1200 East Seventh Street 
Bloomington, Indiana 47405-5500
http://www.indiana.edu/~liblilly/

Will: Ancestry.com. Indiana, Wills and Probate Records, 1798-1999 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015.