For this study, a lost record is considered in two ways: first, as an item from a location where court records have been destroyed; and second, for records that are found in unexpected places – oftentimes far from their point of origin. One might consider this work about wills and their whereabouts. Also abstracts or transcripts of wills have been noted when found published in periodicals.Numerous sources have been consulted, and these are listed under Abbreviations. Many wills may be found digitized and accessed online at the Library of Virginia. Wills that are identified from chancery suits are typically not included if they originate from the same county as the court copy of a will. Of the wills that have been copied from chancery causes, a single suit reference is normally given; however, the will may be found in multiple suits. Many previous to 1800 are included. In using the burned record county database at the Library of Virginia, not all items show the specific source for the copy, so the reference given here is merely BRCD. Duplicate entries have been removed from the subject work, which focuses on data previous to 1800.