National Probate Calendar 1858-1966 online

[Kerrywood]

The National Probate Calendar is now searchable and browsable on Ancestry (index and images).

Search > Tax, Criminal, Land & Wills > England & Wales, National Probate Calendar

You can also access it from View All New Records, or from the Card Catalogue.

This is effectively the national index of wills and administrations proved in the Probate Registry from 1858 onwards. At present the database covers the years 1861 to 1941, with some gaps (details are on the search page).

This is a key resource for probate records after 1858, and an extremely useful online tool. If you have access, enjoy!

[Pam Downes]

and all the other happy smilies.
Thank you for the info, Kerrywood. Having that info online is going to be a real bonus for me as to date I've not had the time to go will-searching.
Pam

[Colin Moretti]

Very good news indeed but I was puzzled that some wills I knew to be there weren't listed until I found:

Our collection covers 80 years from 1861 to 1941. We currently do not have the books for the years 1858-1860 and there are some gaps for the years 1863, 1868, 1873, 1876, 1877, 1883, 1888, 1899-1903 and 1910-1911. However, we hope to add records for these years as soon as possible.

Colin

[Mitch in Notts]

Many thanks for that Kerrywood. I can see that costing me some money in wills... rather than inheriting it....

[rogtut]

Well, that's wonderful. In 5 mins I've found all sorts of info that I've been looking for for my Tutton line. "an extremely useful online tool" is something of an understatement.

Now all I've got to do is to work out how to get the wills/admons - something I've been putting off for a while!

Thanks

[Kerrywood]

Quite apart from the probate aspect, the Calendar handily provides dates and places of death which may be missing from our FH records because we never quite got around to ordering that death certificate, did we?

I can imagine hordes of Brit-Gen members descending on the probate offices over the next few weeks Kerrywood

Not only Brit-Gen members, Graham! We can't even get onto the Probate Registry's website at the moment. I wonder why that should be?

[Sue Mackay]

Thanks Kerrywood

This has now been added to my Quick Links

[junedye64]

Ohhhhh Noooo My subscription has run out.

June

[Peter Goodey]

We can't even get onto the Probate Registry's website at the moment. I wonder why that should be?

I take it you're not thinking of this evening's news bulletins?

[Kerrywood]

I take it you're not thinking of this evening's news bulletins?

Looks to me like bad planning. They’ll surely be needing more staff now, to handle all the probate orders.