I have been tracing my family tree using statutory registers of births, marriages and deaths, the Old Parochial Registers and census returns. I would like now to widen the scope of my research. Will I be sure to find a testament for my ancestor?

Not necessarily. There was no legal requirement for individuals to make a will. Indeed, comparatively few Scots actually bothered to do this. And even if they died intestate (i.e. without having made a will) there was no obligation for their family to go to court to have the deceased’s affairs settled. Many families sorted things out amicably among themselves. Having said this, however, it is certainly worth checking the indexes to the testaments. Even if your ancestor did not leave a will it is still possible that an executor had had to be appointed by the court to administer the estate, in which case there will be some record of his or her possessions. There are sometimes testaments recorded for persons who lived and died in the lowliest situations, whose inventories might include such things as bottomless chairs and haystacks! So do not be put off if you think your ancestor was too humble to appear in the registers.