Just a thought, Madaline.

Were the papers (recorded 14 years after the first set) located in the  
same file/case number as the will?

It was my experience that anything to do with the estate of the  
deceased was bundled together in one folder, so to speak. It might be  
that someone familiar with the methods of filing used by the county  
back then could comment here. There could have been plenty of  
documents destroyed, too, as these would have been parish records just  
before the revolution. I could understand how it could take that long  
just to find where everyone went to after they scrambled to get out of  
the way. I'm under the impression everyone who was a legatee had to be  
accounted for before settlement could take place. If you didn't prove  
if brother Herbert was alive or dead there must have been a petition  
uou could put to the court to cover the situation, assuming the estate  
had enough
money in it to cover the expenses.

You wouldn't be asking this if a second John Chambers had popped up in  
the same county.

Janice

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