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  1. #1
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    Default Anyone In London

    Is there anyone in or going to the royal courts of justice in london who can look up a probate index for me for a 1970s death please? Pm me

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    Also if you were to order a probate record, what would it look like? Is it just gonna be like the little snippet on the index?

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    Super Moderator christanel's Avatar
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    Hi
    reading The National Archives guide to wills and probate Here it seems that it is only the National Probate calendar which is available at the Royal Courts of Justice. This is the same as the index of probate on ancestry. So if you have that then the next step seems to be ordering the will from the Probate Service. The link tells you how.

    Christina
    Sometimes paranoia is just having all the facts.
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  4. #4
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    This is the same as the index of probate on ancestry.
    I'm afraid not. The unofficial Ancestry copy only goes up to 1966.

    ...look up a probate index for me for a 1970s death please?
    If nobody offers, try phoning your nearest Probate Registry. They all have some (more recent) parts of the index although only London has the full one. I don't know how things stand since the cuts bit.

    https://courttribunalfinder.service....of-law/probate

    Also if you were to order a probate record, what would it look like?
    You get a copy of the will (if there was one) and the grant.

    You can just apply without checking the index first but the fee isn't refundable if they don't find anything. But then the fee may be less than the cost of travel to your nearest probate registry.

    https://www.gov.uk/wills-probate-inh...robate-records

    Some record offices and main libraries have partial copies of the probate calendar on microfiche. It might also be worth checking that.

  5. #5
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    This info has been really helpful guys. I didnt realise an administration was so different, so its not worth ordering one of those unless I need to know the relationship of who was chosen or why I guess? when its a bank this just means someone had no family right? or no traceable, can you do anything about that at all? ie if someones estate went to the bank because they didnt know they had relatives can you say hey im a relative? not that i know that yet anyway until i can get to london or get help! Dont wanna send off an app until I know if there was a probate really.

  6. #6
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    "Administration" doesn't mean they got all the money! An administrator has legal responsibility to 'administer' the estate which basically means paying off creditors, paying any tax due and splitting the remaining assets among the relatives in a manner which is laid down by the law governing intestacy. There's a section on the web site explaining the current law.

    Normally the administrator would be the next of kin. If a bank was administrator it may have been because the person died owing the bank money (eg mortgage, bank loan). Don't confuse this with a bank having probate which is something quite different.

    So basically if you think you're a relative, it's no good putting your hand up because there is no money. It's all gone!

    Don't get confused with bona vacantia which is what those Heir Hunters TV shows usually deal with. If there are no known relatives at all, the Treasury Solicitor acts as administrator and sits on the residual estate for a period to allow relatives to emerge.

    The bona vacantia list is online.

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