Probate calendar website down for maintenance

[ElizabethHerts]

https://probatesearch.service.gov.uk/

It's down for maintenance until Friday.
I hope they don't put the prices up.

[kiterunner]

Maybe it will finally come out of beta?!

[ElizabethHerts]

Now they are saying it won't be operational until 4th February. :mad:

https://probatesearch.service.gov.uk/Calendar/AddToBasket#calendar

[kiterunner]

Most of the National Probate Calendar is available to search on other sites, such as Ancestry, FMP, FamilySearch. But not all of it. And of course you can't order via those sites.

[ElizabethHerts]

Just when I had a couple of wills to order! I'm hoping they don't hike the prices.

[kiterunner]

I think when they put the price down they did say it was temporary. :(

[Kit]

They said it would be for a year, which is long ago.

I also thought it was a trial price so I hope they decide to keep it that way.

[ElizabethHerts]

The website is live again but I'm having problems with it.
I have had to change my password but I still can't access it properly.

The format has changed.

The Continue button doesn't work.

[ElizabethHerts]

I can now search but can't view the pages.
I suppose if I wait long enough it will behave. :(

On my Account details page it says:
MANNAGE YOUR ACCOUNT

[kiterunner]

And it STILL says "Beta This is a new service – your feedback will help us to improve it." But it is very different from the old website, which was "Beta" until the end. I can't believe that the new search screen still asks for year of death and proceeds to search for year of probate instead. Surely they could at least have made it ask for year of probate! I wonder whether they ever even looked at any feedback from the old version of the site.

At least it still says the price is £1.50. I don't remember my log-in details so I will wait until I'm on the other computer to try logging in.

[ElizabethHerts]

I've finally got a step further and have entered details into an order form.
The 1884 will I want to order has no folio no. and the box you click on says the following:

"A Folio Number must be entered into the ‘Folio Number’ text box wherever available (excluding any letters). However, some results may not have an associated Folio Number. If there is no number present then this field can be left blank. Please note that Folio Number positions and format do vary. You may find the Folio Number is hand written next to the relevant entry."

I've tried to add the will to my basket but get "Folio number is required" in red!

[kiterunner]

*sighs* You would think they would have made it an improvement on the old version of the site, not worse.

[ElizabethHerts]

In desperation I typed "None" and lo and behold it took me to the next page saying the item was in my basket.

[ElizabethHerts]

Now the site is down for essential maintenance!

[kiterunner]

Hopefully they are fixing some of the problems.

[ElizabethHerts]

It's still down this morning. I want to complete my order today, so I hope it is up and running soon.

[Kit]

I can't access it. There is a link to ordering by post.

I hope I can still get in as I've had items in my cart for a while and I wont remember them all.

[ElizabethHerts]

The website is active again but I can't sign in so I tried to reset my password but no e-mail has come through. :mad:

[Phoenix]

Well, it's now searching by date of death, and as it allows easy first name searching, it is an improvement.

[kiterunner]

Well, it's now searching by date of death, and as it allows easy first name searching, it is an improvement.

Do you mean it is now fully indexed for pre-1993 (or whatever date it was), Phoenix?

[kiterunner]

I can answer my question myself - no, it is not searching by date of death for pre-1993 records, still asks for year of death and then searches for year of probate instead.

[ElizabethHerts]

Still not getting any results.

[ElizabethHerts]

I can't get any results for Telford 1894 despite seeing the entry on FMP.

https://search.findmypast.co.uk/record?id=GBOR%2FGOVPROBATE%2F1894%2FT002132-TELFER-1894&parentid=GBOR%2FGOVPROBATE%2FC%2F1894-1894%2F00039446

[kiterunner]

I like "Was the person a solider" on the search results page.

[Phoenix]

It wasn't computerised pre 1993: you had the books, rather than the microfiche. Probate has always been a leetle bit slower playing catch up than other government departments.

Elizabeth, the page IS there: searching for Telfer will find it. (Goodness knows whether this is an introduced glitch, or an old one)

[kiterunner]

I can't get any results for Telford 1894 despite seeing the entry on FMP.

https://search.findmypast.co.uk/record?id=GBOR%2FGOVPROBATE%2F1894%2FT002132-TELFER-1894&parentid=GBOR%2FGOVPROBATE%2FC%2F1894-1894%2F00039446

Search for Telfer instead.
Edit - snap, Phoenix!

[kiterunner]

It wasn't computerised pre 1993: you had the books, rather than the microfiche.

Yes, I know that, Phoenix. It was just when you said you can search by date of death now that made me think they must have indexed the older records.

[ElizabethHerts]

Thanks!

I'm not getting on well with this. I still have no email to reset my password and it won't let me request another.

[ElizabethHerts]

It's still telling me to add a Folio Number when there isn't one!

Edit: typing in None seems to work.

[ElizabethHerts]

It gives an example of how to express a date:

"What was their date of probate?
For example, 25 03 2007"

I entered 15 03 1884.

Then I get the following message:

"Error:03 is not a valid month"


Edit: I went back to the page and the error message was still showing. However, I pressed the "Add to basket" tab and it worked.
There is no rhyme or reason to this. It seems to be a mater of pot luck whether it works or not.

[ElizabethHerts]

Sussex Family History Group on Facebook has been complaining too. People have been emailing with no reply and everyone is completely in the dark.

I keep going round in circles.

[Kit]

I can get in now but my email address is not recognised.

I haven't tried to register as I want to keep using the same email. I was hoping they would respond until I read the above.

[kiterunner]

I tried to log in with my email address and an error message came up.

[Margaret in Burton]

I tried to log in with my email address and an error message came up.

Same here. According to the latest lost cousins newsletter, all you need to do is reset your password but it doesn’t let you get that far.

[ElizabethHerts]

I tried to reset my password and that has led to problems. I have two wills in my basket but can't do any more until they sort out the password and sign-in problems. They said they sent me a password reset email but it hasn't arrived.

[Margaret in Burton]

Sounds like they have completely messed it up. I don’t have any wills I want to order at the moment but I may need to in the future.

[ElizabethHerts]

I've had an e-mail back from them:

Dear Customer,

We are sorry to hear about your issues with accessing our website.

We are currently ironing out some of the issues which are currently stopping the system running efficiently as it should be. And we are in the process of working through these at the moment.

We understand how frustrating this is, and we will keep the disruption down to a minimum.

Please keep trying to access the website as it will be fixed as quickly as possible.

If you have had a previous account with our previous website. Then please use the email address you used to register before. As this will preserve your orders when transferring over to the new system.

If you haven’t already, then please click on the “forgot password” link in order to create a new password for the new website.

Please note, if you register with a new email address then your previous orders will not be transferred across as they are associated with your original registered email address.

In the meantime, if there are any orders outstanding, then please get back to us with as much information as you can, so we can investigate these for you.

Thank you for your ongoing patience.

Kind Regards,

HMCTS Wills Helpdesk

[Margaret in Burton]

As soon as I put in my email address I get an error message so cannot do ‘forgotten password’.

[Margaret in Burton]

I’ve managed to do the forgot password and am waiting for an email.
Got that and changed password. Now I’m just going round in circles. Just keep wanting me to manage my account.

Can’t see a search tab at all

[kiterunner]

I’ve managed to do the forgot password and am waiting for an email.
Got that and changed password. Now I’m just going round in circles. Just keep wanting me to manage my account.

Can’t see a search tab at all

Do you see "Find a will" near the top of the screen, Marg? If so, click on that.

[ElizabethHerts]

Marg, I tried to reset my password but the email never came and it won't let me do another password reset as it says an email has already been sent. :mad:

I wanted to order 3 wills for my son-in-law for his impending birthday so I registered with OH's email address. Let's hope that works.

By the way, I wanted to order a will for a man with the surname Cozens. I knew all the details so tried to find the will on the system - no joy. It returned no results for the surname Cozens. I tried all sort of things then tried just Coy and managed to find it by scrolling through.

If there is no folio number you have to enter something such as pressing the space bar or typing "None".

This might be useful:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvgExKFbNXQ

It really is a disgrace how they managed to mess this up so badly.

[Margaret in Burton]

Marg, I tried to reset my password but the email never came and it won't let me do another password reset as it says an email has already been sent. :mad:

I wanted to order 3 wills for my son-in-law for his impending birthday so I registered with OH's email address. Let's hope that works.

By the way, I wanted to order a will for a man with the surname Cozens. I knew all the details so tried to find the will on the system - no joy. It returned no results for the surname Cozens. I tried all sort of things then tried just Coy and managed to find it by scrolling through.

If there is no folio number you have to enter something such as pressing the space bar or typing "None".

This might be useful:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvgExKFbNXQ

It really is a disgrace how they managed to mess this up so badly.

It’s pathetic. I’m glad I don’t need to order any at the moment

[ElizabethHerts]

I managed to order 3 wills on 13th February.

Today I have had an e-mail saying:

"Order Confirmation
Your order has been placed.

Order number: 202210006844
Order date: 13/02/2022
We will email you when your order is available for download.

This is an automated message – please do not reply."

Two weeks to acknowledge that an order has been placed! I thought they were telling me my wills were ready for download.:(

[Margaret in Burton]

I still can’t get past the manage account page. I changed my password but I’m going round in circles.

[kiterunner]

So doesn't it say "Find a will" anywhere on the page, Marg?

[ElizabethHerts]

After Kate's post I went back onto my open page as I also see "Find a Will" at the very top and I suddenly noticed that in the last half an hour one of the wills I ordered was ready for download. It's a very short one but good confirmation of what I wanted to know.

[Margaret in Burton]

So doesn't it say "Find a will" anywhere on the page, Marg?

I think I’ve sorted it now. Don’t need anything at the moment

[Phoenix]

The search pages look as if they have changed again in the last fortnight or so. Don't feel half so bad about the time it took to obtain probate on my aunt's estate, when I see how many others were clearly in a similar position.

[Kit]

I'm in but the pages to read the wills are tiny and were unmovable to read when enlarged.

I sent in feedback about that and it has been corrected. I'm not sure if the folio number has been though as I was trying a fake order and it wanted a number even though there was not one.

My old basket has not reappeared though, much to my disappointment.