Genealogy Chat

Hi all,
Just had an email that The National Probate Calendar, 1861-1941 is free on Ancestry UK until July 8th.
Barry

Lovely for those of us that can't afford a subscription though.

Have made good use of it so far, and found 4 relevant probate records. My question is, where do I go for the wills? I have tried the National Archives online and can't find them. Have also tried Wiltshire Archives for one of them, as I have had wills from them before, and still no luck. I'm going to try Berkshire for another, but I don't think theirs are online.

Any other suggestions?

There is a list of Probate Offices here. You can send to any of them for a will which is mentioned on Ancestry. Just give the name and date details given. It costs £5 for each one ordered (or it did last year):-

http://www.lawontheweb.co.uk/Probate/Probate_Offices

Kath. x

Thank you Kath. That looks interesting, will give it a go - might have to go for one at a time though!

Good Morning!

Please could someone enlighten me how to get on to Ancestry
The National Probate Calender? I am not a member of Ancestry -yet!

Hello oldbean. This is the URL from the link in the email I got from Ancestry:

http://search.ancestry.co.uk/search/db.aspx?dbid=1904&o_iid=48559&o_lid=48559&o_sch=Inbound

I got the email because I used to have a subscription

Thank you Christine, brilliant!

oldbean

Many thanks for this link. Found a number of possibles and my ggGrandad.
Maureen

As an update, I emailed the relevant probate offices - as per the link that Kathleen gave me. I have just had a reply from one of them, as follows:

"The word 'administration' in your email indicates that these two people died intestate, so no will would be forth coming. If you email your postal address I would be happy to forward an information leaflet to you."

This is obviously why I couldn't find them on the National Archive list!

Edit: Oxfordshire Probate Office has advised me that for £6 I will get a copy of the grant of probate - even though there is no will

Just thought I would nudge this up in case anyone had missed the free access to the Probate Calendar, which runs until July 8th. Having suddenly found myself with an unexpected day off work and other duties, I am having a lovely time. Particularly interesting has been the record of a Grant of Letters of Administration in 1879, in respect of a lady, already widowed, who died leaving 3 under-age children. The information in the Probate Calendar (I have not got a copy of the actual Grant) tells me that the Grant was made to the Uncle of the three children who was also their Guardian - all all for free!

This is still available. I've found loads, mostly OH's family, a bit of an eye opener. They had mills in Yorkshire, and there was a lot of money involved.