How valuable are wills as a tool for family reconstruction in the pre-census era? A study based on the Oxford Ecclesiastical Court records for Bodicote, Oxfordshire, 1600-1650.

Abstract

This study tested the efficacy of wills as census substitutes, when used in conjunction with parish records. Facts extracted from thirty wills, dated 1600-1650, from Bodicote in Oxfordshire, were compared with the type of facts collected by the decennial censuses. Information obtained from these wills was also considered in terms of advantages over censuses and their reliability and representativeness as sources for this period. A subset of the thirty wills were chosen as case studies to examine if families in the pre-census era could be reconstructed using facts extracted from wills. The relationship information extracted from the case study wills was used to identify possible points of contact between the families with the object of constructing a horizontal community tree; exploring testamentary records use in creating a community context for genealogists to use. Due to the limited size of this study, the conclusions drawn from the analysis were compared with material from selected secondary sources. This study showed that wills were a source of sufficient facts to reconstruct families, when used with parish records. An advantage over censuses was the information wills provided on the quality of relationships; their disadvantages as a source being scarcity and not being classless.