Estate records have been recorded at the county level since the origin of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in 1682. Estates involving property eventually sited in Centre County were recorded prior to 1800. If the deed you're looking for is from this pre-1800 era, you need to see Cumberland, Huntingdon, Lycoming, Mifflin or Northumberland County records.

Centre County wills can be found at the Register of Wills office in the Court House annex known as the Willowbank Building in Bellefonte. The County's earliest estate files which may include wills but often are established for persons intestate (that is, without the deceased having left a will) are housed in the basement of the Centre County Library and Historical Museum in Bellefonte. Patrons interested in seeing these files must sign the researcher register in the Pennsylvania Room and ask for the wherabouts of the estate file index.

This website is also looking for transcribed wills of persons with a Centre County connection. To submit a will online, you may use our Centre County Wills Board. Please enter your information carefully, and if you make a mistake, contact the web site coordinator immediately so that your entry can be edited.

Prior to June 2001, a separate Wills Message Board for Centre County was maintained at RootsWeb.com, but in the middle of June 2001, a change (wrought by its merger with Ancestry.com) resulted in a merger of all RootsWeb message boards so most browsers can only find these mixed in with other queries on one merged board. If you wish to look at the specific set of Wills actually posted, go to that only Centre County Board and click on advanced search. Click on the "Centre Board" button, then look in the middle of the page for an instruction that says, "Message Classification," and use the pull-down menu until you reach one for "Will."

We encourage the continued posting of material from Wills by using the message boards for Wills at PA-Roots.com.