Genealogy Chat

Sorry - was very lapse - just writing to say thanks for all your help Best wishes Helen

Helen Following on from my thread last night and the digging that was done on my behalf, if you are looking for whether someone left a will post 1858, as Laird says it will be on the National Probate Calendar. A copy of this is held at the FRC in London and lots of other main records offices hold a copy too, so its worth contacting your nearest one to see whether they have it for you to look at. Once you know whether a will was made and when it was granted, you can then use that information to obtain a copy from the information given above, i.e York Lou

If you go into any crown court the probate office keeps wills there 1850 to 1966 and they will tell you how to get other dates

Hi you should be able to get copies of any Wills that have been "proved" from York Probate Registry Search and Copies Department Castle Chambers Clifford Street York YO1 9RG, they will need as much info as you can possible give them, full name, last known address, date of birth and date of death copies are £5 a Grant of Probate is usually required when an estate is worth over £5000 these days but not sure what the criteria was a hundred years or so ago but would definitely have been required if there was property Hope this helps, if you want any further info please email me. Hevi Bournemouth

Documents Online is the source of wills pre 1858, proved at Canterbury. You say yours mostly died after 1858 so you need to look at the index (sometimes called a calendar) of national probate (as Laird says, probate is the act of proving, giving the executors permission to act on the terms of a will once someone has died. The index is searchable on microfiche at most county records offices. Usually probate was granted soon after the death but if there was a problem finding it it may not appear on the index until the following year or later so its worth searching some time past the date of death. Once you have found out if your ancestor did leave a will then you can apply for a copy of it for £5 from the National Probate office in York. If you can't access the index then the National Probate Office will do a search as part of your fee, to see if there was a will. You need to provide them with as much info as you have on the person's name, address and date of death. The York address is Postal Searches and Copies Department, The Probate Registry, Castle Chambers, Clifford Street, York, YO1 9RG

Hi - you can search for wills in http://www(.)documentsonline(.)nationalarchives(.)gov(.)uk/ (remove brackets of course !) Wills and Probate - probate is in simple terms the 'proving' of the will, or letting it be actioned. Can take some time, no idea why its so complicated. Google it !

Ive read countless threads about wills and looked up various help pages online, but Im still confused. Most of my lot that Id like to find wills for (if there are any) are after 1858 so I cant use A2A - also I hadnt realised that its only well to do peeps who are on there anyway so for any further back Id have to look elsewhere. Anyway, I have a long list of names, and pretty much know where most of them died and when. How do I go about investigating whether they left a will and what is the difference between wills and probate? All help really gratefully recieved Many thanks