How can I find these records about this person?

A will is a court document, filed normally in the county where the person died. You need to order microfilm, which is "probate and wills index, xyz county, 1750-1800". Since people "say" it is there, then it probably is...although some documents in courts are misfiled. Nothing guarantees it to be on that film. When you say "use the family history library" I assume you mean physically going there, and ordering microfilm, right? The problem is perhaps that you think of records as they may be on the internet..indexed or findable with google. For court documents (land records, etc), the fact is old fashioned reading the film is the only way..unless someone else has specified the source, such as "will book 5 page 300". For Pittsylvania, by the way..you HAVE TO HAVE a clear concept of the date of the event, vs the creation date of Pittsylvania. You do know that it was originally part of Halifax, right? edit.. ok.. you ARE trying to do this online. That is not how to get to the microfilm of court records. more go TO THE family history center/ library. They have volunteers there to walk you through it. I used to be one. Explain what you need, they will show you how to use the catalog, then how to use the machines for microfilm. You will order the films that you choose, and they will arrive in a week or so. Small handling fee. If you have never seen a microfilm before, it is bewildering, but it will clear up quickly. PS...it is how we used to do research pre internet. *smiles at you* I am going to politely disagree with another post. A will IS a court document, although there may be others that are not. MOST county clerks do NOT DO research...that is not their function. By looking through the records, YOU know what is/ is not recorded in the books. You also may find other unexpected documents that relate to your interest. I have had people tell me, more than once, that they asked or "sent" for a record and was told it did not exist. Thus, how did I FIND it, when I searched myself? an abstract is a book, where a 3rd party has read the record and extracted (copied) what they think is of relevance. Not official. You also want to see the PROBATE record, that can include valuable further data.

If you have been told a record (will) is in the Pittsylvania Court, Virginia the next step is to figure out how you can access records that are stored there, assuming it is impractical to physically go there. Family Search and Family History Centers may have them, but they don't have everything. A couple of pieces of information that will help: wills are probate records; probate records can be stored in a number of courts (county, circuit, district, etc.); and it helps to know when he would have died. From the information given, I can figure Edward died after 1784 when he had a child. I can use this to set a logical range of 1784-1866. From Family Search, I first entered Edward Eanes into the search box (Records tab) then selected Collections: Probate & Court. I got a list of about 100 things, mostly obvious non-matches and nothing from Virginia. Next I want to see if they even have a collection of Pittsylvania, Virginia probate records. I returned to the home screen and clicked Catalog. From the Catalog Search I made sure the drop down was on Place Names, then entered Pittsylvania, Virginia in the For box. This shows everything the Family History Center has for that area. Some are online, some are not. I scrolled down and clicked on Virginia, Pittsylvania - Probate Records. Of the 14 items shown, I can estimate 7 of them will show some wills from the time period I'm looking for. Some of these items are books. You can try Google Books to see if they are available online. You can take the information to a Family History Center or a Family History Library and they will help you access them. They usually have to be borrowed from another location, so there may be a fee and wait time. Another way is to Google to find Pittsylvania, Virginia probate record archives. What I found is that the Pittsylvania County Clerk of the Circuit Court has probate records since 1766. Perfect! This is the website for that court http://www.courts.state.va.us/courts/circuit/Pittsylvania/home.html with contact information. You can call or email to find out how to order copies of records. They will usually not do research, but will retrieve, copy and send you the record for a fee. If you give them too much or not enough information you may get a note back that they couldn't find the record.

Okay, good work; you gave a time period and a place. Most wills from the late 1700s were not really court records; they were usually made upon a person's death bed, or near the end of a prolonged illness that led to death, in the person's home, attended to by relatives, friends, and neighbors (often that meant the same thing). IF the will went through probate (which is where the "official" part comes in, then there would be an official record. I have a copy of a will drawn up by a great-g-g-g-g-grandmother, listing her linen, bed, knifes, forks, spoons, dishes, etc., and to whom each item was to go to. The ONLY reason why I have a copy is because her descendants kept the original and passed it down until the 20th century, when zerox and then the internet came along to pass it to folks such as myself. I also have "official records" from Fauquier County, Virginia from that time period, including one entitled "Abstracts of Faquier County, Virginia: Wills, Inventories & Accounts" that I obtained from the Fauquier County, Virginia, library. So, probably you stand a good chance by contacting the folks in Pittsylvania County. You might start with: http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~vapittsy/ http://genforum.genealogy.com/va/pittsylvania/ http://www.pittgov.org/ http://www.pcplib.org/ The Virginia State U library has one of the most extensive genealogy departments available, so you can use them as a backup.