Daily Ancestortestamentum
Testamentum is Latin for a will, a person's written or spoken directions for passing on property at death.
Testamentum means will or testament. Wills in Latin are found especially in older legal records, and burial entries may note whether the dead person left one, sometimes with a phrase such as suum ordinaverat testamentum, he had put his will in order.
A burial entry that mentions a will tells you to look for probate or court records, which can name heirs, children and in-laws.
As seen in a recordLatin burial register, 1770s
Obiit Jacobus Mayr, agricola, qui suum ordinaverat testamentum
Sources
How to cite this page
Daily Ancestor. "testamentum." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/latin/testamentum. Last checked 2026-10-10.