Wills are one of the most useful types of genealogical records, especially before the mid 19th century when detailed censuses became common in the English-speaking world. Unfortunately, they're also some of the hardest to get ahold of because they are big, complicated, and usually handwritten. Most wills are held in local jurisdictions, either in the original or more likely in the form of a will book copy. I've been transcribing some, and I've put copies of the transcriptions on this site. The original images are often copyrighted, either by the Crown for UK wills or by whoever took the original image (often the LDS), so I can't put those up in most cases. The status of the transcription is a little murky. Generally, copyright protects the expression of data but not the data themselves, so I'm working under the theory that I'm extracting data, and there is quite a bit of expertise that goes into trancribing these, especially the oldest ones. You have to deal not only with the handwriting but also the archaic spelling and grammar, the cultural context , and typically small doses of Latin. Early wills were probated by church courts, so the probate notation at the end (usually beginning with "Probatum fuit") was often in Latin up into the 18th century. There's not usually anything interesting in that section except for the date of probate, but every once in a while there will be some clue about the executors.
In some cases, abstracts of these wills were already available, but in my experience, it's almost always worth it to get the entire will. A general abstracter just doesn't know what the important stuff is - the 4th godson who got 3 shillings for a pair of funeral gloves might just be the crucial link that cracks the case.
