Isaac

This appeal involves the probate of a formal will which the testatrix attempted to alter by pen and ink strikeouts and interlineations.

Dorothy V. Gumming (hereinafter the decedent) died April 22, 1975, survived by a sister Gladys Gumming Noll and a brother Ulmont Gumming. The latter died prior to the probate of Dorothy’s will, and is represented in this proceeding by his executors.

The decedent left a typewritten witnessed will on the stationery of an attorney with a Portsmouth, Virginia, address, executed April 6, 1933. Mrs. Noll, as a beneficiary named in that will, petitioned for probate. The typewritten document, as offered for probate, had been mutilated by pen and ink lines drawn through portions of the text, and handwritten interlineations. Ulmont’s executors contested upon the ground that the mutilations and interlineations had the effect of cancelling the bequests, creating an intestacy. After a trial, the probate court made findings of fact and conclusions of law, and a judgment overruling the contest, and *870 admitting the April 6, 1933, document with modifications. The probate court’s findings of fact and conclusions of law declared that this will “devises…