Can’t Read an Old Will?
Here’s What To Do

Wills & Probate  ·  Getting Started  ·  June 2026

You’ve found an ancestor’s will — perhaps through a county archive, perhaps in a collection of old family papers — and you cannot read a word of it. The letterforms look nothing like modern handwriting. Words that ought to be English seem almost like code. You are not alone, and you are not failing. Old English wills are written in a script that requires specialist training to read fluently, and there is help available.

Why Old Wills Are So Difficult to Read

Wills written before roughly 1750 — and many written after that date — are in what is known as secretary hand: a formal cursive script used by clerks and legal professionals across several centuries. It has its own alphabet, its own contractions and abbreviations, and letterforms that bear almost no resemblance to anything taught in schools today. Even experienced researchers can find a compressed or damaged document slow going without specialist training.

Several factors combine to make historic wills particularly challenging:

• Secretary hand letterforms — letters such as e, r, s, and f take forms entirely unlike their modern equivalents.
• Contraction and abbreviation were standard practice in legal documents. Scribes routinely shortened words using superscript letters and marks that can look like random symbols to the untrained eye.
• Legal Latin and law French appear in many wills, especially in the preamble and formal clauses.
• Fading, water damage, and foxing over several centuries can obscure even well-formed letters.
• Individual scribal hands vary considerably — no two clerks wrote identically, and some used highly personal letterforms that require experience to decipher.

Even this relatively legible extract contains contractions (p’ish for parish, p’fect for perfect) and legal formulas that require familiarity to interpret correctly.

What Are Your Options?

If you have a will you cannot read, you have a few paths open to you.

Teach yourself. The National Archives offers online guides to secretary hand, and there are practice documents with transcriptions alongside. This is worthwhile if you have many documents to work through and the time to invest. It is not a quick solution, and some documents will remain beyond a beginner’s reach even after considerable effort.

Ask in a genealogy forum. Communities such as specialist Facebook groups and genealogy forums include experienced volunteers who may help with an isolated word or phrase. This works well for quick queries but is not reliable for a complete document, and quality varies.

Commission a professional transcription. For a document of genuine significance — a will that may contain important bequests, property details, or family relationships that have eluded you — a professional transcription is usually the right answer. You receive an accurate, complete transcript with uncertain readings noted and terminology explained where needed.

What Does Professional Transcription Involve?

At Heritage Script, the process is straightforward. You send an image of your document — a good photograph or scan is usually sufficient — and receive a no-obligation assessment and quote within 24 hours. For complex documents a small assessment fee applies, which is deducted from your invoice if you proceed.

The transcription is delivered as a clean, readable document with difficult or uncertain readings clearly marked. Where legal terminology or archaic language needs explanation, notes are provided. You also receive a first-page preview before final delivery, so you can verify the quality before committing.

Most wills are completed within a week of commission, often sooner.

What Can You Expect to Learn?

A transcribed will often contains far more than a simple list of bequests. Depending on the period and the individual, you may find:

• Full names of children, grandchildren, and other relatives — sometimes including married daughters whose surnames were otherwise unknown
• Property descriptions that place an ancestor precisely in a landscape
• Indications of occupation, social status, and material circumstances
• Religious preambles that can suggest nonconformist or Catholic affiliation
• Named executors and witnesses — often neighbours or business associates who open new lines of research
• Debts owed and owing, sometimes identifying employers, creditors, or trading partners

A single will, properly read, can transform a family tree from a bare list of names and dates into something approaching a life.