Abstracting: Do It Right!, The Virginia Genealogical Society Newsletter, August 1997
Extracting the essential facts from a record without copying the document verbatim is a technique that genealogists commonly refer to as abstracting. Printed forms for abstracting pertinent records are commercially available. They may be useful, but many are not satisfactory because the documents themselves do not always conform to the format selected by the form designers.
Wills
- Citation - note county, will book #, beginning page number
- Testator's occupation, age, health, residence, etc.
- Abstract names of all people named and their relationship to testator
- Essentials of bequests, land descriptions, slaves, money, etc.
- Special explanations or restrictions, trustees, guardians, etc.
- Executor / executrix
- Witnesses, signatures or signed with X or mark
- Dates written and probated
- Inventory
- Sale bills
- Administrator bonds
Case, Stephen. "On the Trail of Treason: Peggy Shippen's Amazing Story," American Ancestors, Fall 2012.
Was she the most dangerous young woman in American history? Peggy Shippen born in 1760 was the granddaughter of a Philadelphia mayor and belonged to one of the city's first families. At their fancy home, just around the corner from Independence Hall, her parents entertained George Washington as a dinner guest. At eighteen, Peggy Shippen married a crippled, war-hero widower twice her age. Together they embarked on a plot to destroy the American revolution . . . Peggy was Mrs. Benedict Arnold.
Documents made available in the 1920s proved conclusively that Peggy had been an active conspirator with her husband from the very start.
In 1776, at age sixteen, Peggy was a beguiling, charming star of the Philadelphia scene. When she was seventeen, the British invaded and occupied the city. Peggy developed a friendship with a particularly handsome and charming twenty-six-year-old British officer, John Andre.
When the British left Philadelphia, Benedict Arnold was appointed military commander of the city. Arnold's successful exploits at military engagements at Fort Ticonderoga, Quebec, Valcour Island and Saratoga place him, in my opinion, alongside Ulysses S. Grant, William T. Sherman and George S. Patton, Jr., as one of the most effective field commanders in American military history. Some might compare his tactical achievements with those of Robert E. Lee and Stonewell Jackson.
