How Do I look for wills?

[BlueSavannah]

Hi everyone

Ive never really looked in to obtaining wills that my ancestors left (if they left one) but it is something that I would like to start looking in to as it might help with a number of brickwalls I have.

I really dont know how and where to start with this. I have looked for a few pre 1858 ones on the national archives site but as most of mine are from south yorkshire or staffordshire, it has provided nothing.

Any advice in this area is most appreciated :)

Kind Regards

[ElizabethHerts]

Hi, Blue Savannah.

You have to treat each pre-1858 will separately.

Could you post a list of people you are interested in? We would need a year of death, if not exact at least some idea, and where they lived. There are various searching tools depending on where they lived when they died or made the will.

I'm afraid it isn't an exact science, but if you have people all living in the same county/region you might well become experienced in how to find any wills that exist.

[BlueSavannah]

Hi Elizabeth

Many thanks for the response. There are so many that I am interested in both pre and post 1858. I will list the ones I would like to look for first (theres a few lol)

Pre 1858
Joshua Beckitt (Beckett etc) who died 16th November 1854 in Sheffield (12 Carr Lane)
Joseph White who died in 1854 (dont have the date but its in the Sept Q). He died in the tiny village of Ulley near Rotherham, South Yorkshire.
Philip Eastwood who was buried on the 26th December 1849 and died in Sheffield.

Post 1858
Maurice Chryst who died 26th June 1907 in Sheffield
Karol Philip Chryst who died 9th March 1919 in Sheffield

Ambrose Raybould who died 6th September 1935 in Rotherham (but I think lived Sheffield)
Samuel Raybould who died 12th June 1893 in Sheffield
Richard Raybould who died 11th October 1888 in Brierley Hill, Staffordshire

William Jones who died 16th September 1895 in Sheffield.

Theres quite a list there and thats just the ones I would love if they actually left a will.

Regards

[ElizabethHerts]

FMP have a death duty index for 1796 - 1903 and I have used it with some success.

http://www.findmypast.co.uk/DeathDutyStartSearchServlet

You can search PCC wills on the National Archives site:

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documentsonline/browse-refine.asp?CatID=6&searchType=browserefine&pagenumber=1&query=*&queryType=1


Hampshire:
You can search for wills here:
http://calm.hants.gov.uk/DServe/Search%20all.htm

Some Surrey wills:
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~engsurry/justs.shtml

[kiterunner]

British Origins has several indexes for Yorkshire included in what it's now calling its "National Wills Index". You do have to subscribe before you can search properly on their site, but they do have a cheap short-term sub (72 hours, I think) which doesn't automatically renew.

http://www.originsnetwork.com/Welcome.aspx

[Phoenix]

Before 1858, wills were proved in church courts. There was a whole heirarchy, depending on how wealthy you were. The smallest wills were usually proved in the archdeacon's court and in Yorkshire the grandest were usually proved in the Prerogative Court of York - held in the Borthwick Institute.

Ask the archives covering Sheffield where wills were most likely to have been proved and where you should go to see them.

[kiterunner]

As for the post-1858 ones, you need to search the National Probate Calendar, which isn't online but is held at some record offices and at probate offices.

[BlueSavannah]

Many thanks all for the advice. I will drop Sheffield Archives an email to see if they can help me at all with the pre-1858 ones I am looking for. If they hold the probate calender, I must get myself over to Sheffield very soon :)

Thank you for the link Kiterunner to the british origins site, I will take a look on there. Quick question, if there was an index reference to any that I am looking for, how do I then use that reference? Where do I look to get a copy of the actual will?

Many thanks again.

[kiterunner]

If you find any (post-1858) wills listed in the National Probate Calendar, you can order a copy from the York Probate Sub-registry:

http://www.hmcourts-service.gov.uk/cms/1226.htm
The form you need is a PA1S - click on "Forms and Guidance" in the top left-hand corner of that page to get the forms search.

You have to pay them £5 for a copy of a will. If you can't get to the National Probate Calendar, you can also order them to search and that is included in your £5, but if they don't find anything you don't get a refund.

As for the pre-1858 stuff, if you want a copy of a will which is held by a local record office you usually have to request them to give you a quote for sending you a copy, but it usually works out at just a few pounds. If you find an entry on the British Origins wills indexes for a will held at the Borthwick Institute (also in York) you can order a copy of the actual will via British Origins. I don't know how much it costs as I haven't got a sub at the moment. If you do take out one of their 72-hour subs, make sure to put in any orders you want before the sub expires!

Some local record offices have an online will index but it doesn't look as though Sheffield or Rotherham does.

[Lancashire Lady]

Many thanks all for the advice. I will drop Sheffield Archives an email to see if they can help me at all with the pre-1858 ones I am looking for. If they hold the probate calender, I must get myself over to Sheffield very soon :)

.

if its easy for you to get to sheffield, you can look for post 1858-wills online (covers all the country, not just sheffield) at the probate office itself. You don't need to book but they only have one computer for public use. They are open till about 3.30 weekdays I think, email them for details.

[BlueSavannah]

Hi Vicky

Thanks for that information. I will give them a call. I live in Greater Manchester. Its easyish for me to get over to to Sheffield on the train. There are quite alot of post-1858 ones that I would like to search for.

Kind Regards

[Phoenix]

Have to say, when I got my pcy wills, probably a decade or more ago, they cost an absolute fortune direct from the Borthwick. Via Origins may well be cheaper, but the indexes are readily available on the shelves in larger libraries.

[Lancashire Lady]

Hi Vicky

Thanks for that information. I will give them a call. I live in Greater Manchester. Its easyish for me to get over to to Sheffield on the train. There are quite alot of post-1858 ones that I would like to search for.

Kind Regards

there is a probate office in Manchester too.

don't know if they have the same arrangements in place as Sheffield for consulting the records, but might be worth emailing them to ask. I presume it would be just as easy for you to get into central Manchester as Sheffield!

[BlueSavannah]

ah thats good to know. I will drop the Manchester office an email to ask what their procedures are.

Its just a tram ride in to Manchester for me (not that I know where I am going once there lol).

[ElizabethHerts]

When I went to West Sussex RO in Chichester last month I was flabbergasted to find that I could print off all the wills I wanted just for the cost of the photocopy! That also applied to marriage licences.

The cost of wills seems to very depending on where they come from.

[BlueSavannah]

I sent an email yesterday to the Sheffield archives about pre-1858 wills and am very interested in what their response may be. Previous queries to Sheffield Archives have taken a week or two to get a response so I am waiting patiently :)

[Gert in Oz]

Anyone looking for Derbyshire wills 1858-1928, try here.

http://www.derbyshire.gov.uk/leisure/record_office/our_collection/derbyshirewill