Help do I PERSUE Male or Female Wills

[Eviand]

Whenever I've written to the York Probate in persuit of a will, I've always been ordering the male's will. It never occured to me to persue the female's will. Several times, nothing has showed searching for the male will. In history, were women restricted to making wills or have they always been eligible? Should I be persuing both the male and female wills in future searches?

Many people are always asking how to search the Indexes and I've never been able to work it out. Can I search the (Lincolnshire) probate indexes online?

[Lesley Robertson]

Whenever I've written to the York Probate in persuit of a will, I've always been ordering the male's will. It never occured to me to persue the female's will. Several times, nothing has showed searching for the male will. In history, were women restricted to making wills or have they always been eligible? Should I be persuing both the male and female wills in future searches?

I find it's a good idea to search for everything and anything - you never know what has survived! Of course, not everyone made a will, but it's always worth a look.
Lesley

[Marie C..]

Female wills are often very revealing! I have found very useful information on one recently.

[benny1982]

Hi

Yes they can be very revealing. A lot of females mentioned cousins, sisters in the will, a handy tool for going back further on the family.

Then again all wills can be revealing. My ancestor who died in 1750 left his son 3 looms.

Ben

[Peter Goodey]

It may well be that fewer wills were made by women but that doesn't really guide you in how to approach your own specific research. Just because there's not much chance of finding something doesn't mean that we won't look for it!

Personally, I would say it's always worth, at the very least, looking for a widow's will if the man didn't leave one.

If you don't mind me saying so, the scatter-gun approach with York sounds a bit hit and miss and rather expensive. You might be better off getting a friend to spend time at Holborn going through the calendars and extracting details of your families.

[Eviand]

If you don't mind me saying so, the scatter-gun approach with York sounds a bit hit and miss and rather expensive. You might be better off getting a friend to spend time at Holborn going through the calendars and extracting details of your families.

I don't mind in the slightest. I totally agree, that's partly the reason why I posted this thread. I think in total I've applied for five wills with three successes. On the occasions that returned nothing these could have fallen outside of the four year search, who knows? Indeed if I knew a will had been made I'd know that my money was being well spent.

Is it possible to search the calenders online?

[Peter Goodey]

Is it possible to search the calenders online?

That was another IT project that hit the buffers

ISTR that the film is available throught the Mormons.

[LittleMissP]

You'd think that the likes of Ancestry or FMP would gobble up the opportunity to transcribe the Probate Calendar?

Maybe I should start my own mass transcription project of it then sell it and a business structure onto them?