Will You, or Won't You?—Finding the Probate of Mary Towler Bennett

Few things are better for your research than helping someone else with their genealogy conundrums. At least for me, it helps me to reexamine old problems with new eyes. That has certainly been the case with me these days. My husband recently took a commercial DNA test, and our conversations have made me want to revisit some of my Bennett lines in Pittsylvania County, Virginia.

In an effort to identify more Bennett cousins on my DNA, I've been reworking all of my Bennett lines and claims. These lines in my tree date back to the early 1800s, so I'm using will and probate records to reconstruct early Bennett families where vital records don't exist. That means revisiting the Virginia Wills and Probate collections on Ancestry.com.

I'm not sure what happened to the Pittsylvania County resources in this collection. But soon after that database launched, these records were no longer available. Trying to search Pittsylvania County records produced error after error. When I contacted Ancestry about the problem, I was told the agreement to share the records was under renegotiation.

That was several years ago, and I'm not sure if they ever figured out their issues. Trying to view or search Pittsylvania County records still produces errors. But where there's a will, there's a way. And I found a way.

If I gave away ALL of my secrets, I wouldn't have any left for myself 😘

I got access to Mary Polly Towler Bennett's will and accounts current files. I can no longer find the collection where I got the will from, and I'm presuming it has been removed. So unfortunately I can't cite the Ancestry image I have. But it's in Will Book 2, pg 197. She made out her will on 3 May 1849, and it was recorded after her death on 21 May 1855.

Her children are listed, and she left each of them "one dollar."

• Sabra Bennett Watson
• Absalom Bennett
• Dinia Headrick
• Jane Tosh
• The children of her deceased son, Henry Towler

The rest of her estate went to her son Crafton Bennett, who was her executor. He's also the same guy from this post.

Today, I found a companion piece of documentation to this will. The accounts current books are not records I have previously used because I didn't know what they were. In a nutshell, they're inventories and entries that track how executors administer the wills and estates of the deceased. Many times, they include inventories of items that were sold as part of the estate, and to whom they were sold. This was the case with Mary's estate. I also can't cite this record because the collection is in limbo right now. But if you view Accounts Current book 21-22, pg 364, you won't be disappointed.

Here we see Crafton Bennett selling off his mother's belongings, presumably to increase the value of the estate and pay off any outstanding debts. Looking through the other pages here, I've seen slaves named as their sale and exchange is recorded. I don't know if every county has Accounts Current records. But Pittsylvania County does, and they'd be a great resource for those seeking to document enslaved relatives.

It's really fascinating to see how few items people owned back then, especially in comparison to today's consumer culture. If I had to write down everything I own, there's no way it would all fit in the space allotted here.