Genealogy Chat

Do you know when they died? If they died after 1858 you can check in the probate calendars held at many local record offices for the whole country.

After 1796, there was estate duty payable on estates above a certain size. The death duty registers up to 1858 have been microfilmed and are available at the Family Record Centre in London and at least the indexes online on the National Archivist website. They are not particularly easy to search, but there is a centralised index which covers the entire country. The actual registers state which court the will was proved in, so you can obtain a copy for yourself. They also say how much tax was paid and WHAT RELATIONSHIP each beneficiary was to the testator, so they are well worth looking through. B

Louise Can you get to the county records office for the area you are searching in. They sometimes have a list of people that left wills. I know mine does. Or I think there may be a website that you can search to see if someone has left a will. Can't remember the name now. Hope someone else can Jeanette x

Louise Don't mean to disheartern you, but i have ag labs whoes children were scholars. Simply means they were in school, or they were working but too young, so the parents lied to lok better. Shelli

all's i have an idea of is that they were quite well off. (in 1832 the pawnbroker had at least £10 to his name & in 1851, the grandchildren were scholars) Thanks anyway

Hi Louise You can never be certain. I suppose it depends on how successful they were. And of course a lot of people die before they get round to making a will Jeanette x

if i have two ancestors, one a pawnbroker in the 1820's, and his son a watch maker/finisher in the 1840/1850's - is it likely they would have left wills?