If you have roots in Surry County, N.C., a recently published book may
be of considerable assistance in your research.

``Surry County, North Carolina, Wills'' reproduces the essentials of
the contents of around 1,000 wills filed between 1771 and 1827. While
that represents only 1,000 or so people who died, their lives touched
on thousands of others, for the complete index covers more than 30
pages of small type -- probably some 5,000 names.

The county, just south of Virginia, was once much larger than today.
It was formed in 1771 from Rowan County and included -- until 1778 --
present-day Ashe, Alleghany, Wilkes, Yadkin, Stokes, and Forsyth
counties. Until 1787 Yadkin, Stokes, and Forsyth were part of it.

The abstracts, prepared by Jo White Linn, typically include the name
of the dead person, date of death, date of the will, heirs and their
relationships, bequests, executors, administrators, and witnesses.
Often there are annotations and cross-references.

A 215-page clothbound, Surry County Wills is available from selected
genealogical societies or directly from Genealogical Publishing
Company, Dept. SM, 1001 North Calvert Street, Baltimore, MD,
21202-3897 (1-800-296-6687) at $25 plus $3 postage/handling.

Incidentally, researchers of this area may be interested to know that
the same publisher has, in print, the Rev. Jethro Rumple's ``A History
of Rowan County, N.C.'', originally published in 1881 ($30) and
``Marriages of Rowan County, N.C., 1753-1868,'' covering some 25,000
people ($30).--J.F.S.