Curses! lol No requests - I am just annoyed!

[Merry]

BK6 updated from this thread

Bloomin' McCrerys :(

I've just downloaded a will for Robert Francis McCrery. Of course he didn't properly divulge who he is, leaving out his middle name and suddenly becoming a farmer from Hendon rather than a lamp manufacturer from Bloomsbury. He (like his father before him) didn't bother with writing his will in the proper fashion - no witnesses - so there was a lot of swearing in court as to the validity of the document. He did give his wife the right first name and his only child the right first name, so that's why I'm thinking it's the right Robert (plus the will was proved two months after my Robert's burial).

The real frustration is that Robert says if his wife and child should die then his estate should be passed to his wife's sister or her heirs, but he only gives her flippin' first name - Elizabeth - making it much more difficuly (impossible?) to work out who she is. I am related to both sides of this family as Robert married his second cousin and I've never been able to sort out the wife's family either, so this Elizabeth could have been a big clue if she was already married and Robert had given her surname.

Why can't they help me for once?

Is it the Mccrery Curse? Maybe I should leave them alone?? :eek:

[Olde Crone]

Isn't it maddening, Merry.

I had high hopes of the Will of a wealthy farmer. He had a very common surname (Green) and I hoped his Will would sort out who his daughters married, and that details of land in long family ownership would sort out some tangles from the past.

Huh. It consisted of four lines "I leave everything to Mary and Ann Hammond for their kindness to me".

"Everything" was less than £300. He had obviously disposed of his assets long before his death. Mary and Sarah Hammond were two equally ancient spinster sisters who lived next door to him in his old age and were not part of his family, as far as I can tell.

OC

[Merry]

What about OH's grandparents marriage cert where there's a line through the father's name box, even though we know so much about his dad - except his name, of course!! They vowed to be strangers to each other a few years earlier following some almightly row. Hence OH's tree has an abrupt stop as there is also no birth record for his grandfather. :(

[Nell]

My sympathies. I have an elusive family I am trying to connect to my husband's lot - I know there is a connection but can't find out what. Doesn't help when various wlls helpfully say things like "to my nephew's four younger children" so I don't have any idea which sex they are, let alone names!

Or "my niece Mary Price". Well is Price her maiden or married name and how is she your niece???

Ggggrrr. Why can't they say "my sister Julia's daughter or something clearer???

[Merry]

I think it must be deliberate! All the wills of people where I already know their full tree do seem to put full details of relationships in writing :rolleyes:

[HarrysMum]

I'll swap you one of yours for one of mine........lol

Beautifully written wills with lots of "to my sister,Elizabeth who is the widow of Joshua Taylor," or "to the Independent Chapel at Clayton"................

No such chapel existed according to any local records.
Elizabeth did marry Joshua and have one daughter, Sarah, and lived to be 98, but Sarah can't be found anywhere.

Grrrrr!!!!!

[Nell]

So no information or incorrect information. I bet our ancestors are laughing their heads off somewhere!

[Terri]

Ah! The joy of wills!

I had an excellent one, very ancient though.

It very kindly listed "all the daughters of my son John" by full name, ever so helpful it was. Until I acquired the will of his "son John", who also ever so helpfully listed his daughters ............. except that it was a completely different set of names! :d

Still haven't figured which will is the wrong one. In fact, according to all records, they are both correct!

[annswabey]

What about Death Duty Registers? The Index is on FMP I believe, and the documents would be at Kew.

[Merry]

What about Death Duty Registers? The Index is on FMP I believe, and the documents would be at Kew.

I've never looked at those before, Ann, so I was a bit confused (still am!) as to what they are about? I don't understand why every entry has 'intestate' at the top of the name column? At first I assued I would find an entry for my relative, but then as he didn't die intestate I became less surprised that there was no entry for him. But surely those who died and made a will would be at least as likely as everyone else to have to pay death duties?

Please excuse my ignorance! (and what would I have had to do with the index entry, had I found one?)

[annswabey]

I've never looked at the fmp indexes but have just read through and they imply that they have all death duty entries. Kew has separate records for Testators and Intestates so I wonder if fmp just have intestates, in view of what you've said?

Death Duty registers will show what actually happened to the estate - i.e. who actually recieved anything and family relationship should be given. They can also be annotated for years giving details of death of family members. If only the spouse inherited though, it would be exempt from death duty and would not therefore appear in the registers.

[Merry]

Gosh that sounds really useful!

I only looked at one year for my chap as he did and the will was proved within a few weeks, but for that year at least there were no entries for testators.

Thanks for your help Ann.

[Phoenix]

Death duty registers are brilliant. I've only bothered with the ones pre 1858 as they are the most easily accessible - later ones are unfilmed, huge, and take 3 days to order from the salt mines (or wherever they hold them now)
Intestacy ones would be just as useful as testator entries as they would follow intestacy rules, so you could see who was left to cop the loot. Sadly, when calculating tax, illegitimate legatees don't count as family. I have an xgreat uncle who leaves money to his housekeeper's daughters. Miraculously, a scandalised letter of the 1840s has been transcribed, mentioning how one of these girls looks very like this man! But of course there is nothing to indicate the relationship in either will or the registers.