The Price Is Right!
The genealogy world has been happily stunned this week by a massive drop in the price of post-1858 probate records and wills for the United Kingdom. When the UK Government’s Find A Will site was first launched a few years ago, wills were £ 5 and over the years that became £ 10. This week they have dropped back to only £ 1.50 each! I have heard that this may be a temporary price drop for only 12 months but have not seen the source of that information, so this may or may not be the case.
What Does This Mean For Family Historians?
In a nutshell, it means you have a golden opportunity to purchase probate records not just for all your direct ancestors, but also others in the broader family. If you recall from a recent blog post, wills can be a great way to find out who was in the extended family and how they were related to the willmaker. Often the quality of the relationships between family members was also revealed.
Finding the Probate Record
There are three ways to find the probate record details so that you can order it. There is a search facility on the site itself. This a simple surname and year search. Please note that year may not be the same as the year of death. Some estates were not settled till months or years later. The year they are asking for is the year of probate. There may also be difficulties finding the right records if the surname you are searching is common.
I recommend doing your searching at one of the other sites who have indexed these records. In most cases it will be much quicker. Once you’ve found the record, use the details to place your order at the Find A will site.
The two sites that I am aware of that have indexed the UK probate calendars are Ancestry and FindMyPast. You do not need subscriptions to do a simple search of the index.
Ancestry
Ancestry holds the indexes for probates from 1858-1995. The collection is called “England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1995”. See the image below for details of the fields you can search to find your family member.
FindMyPast
FindMyPast holds the indexes from 1858-1959 at this stage. Its search page is slightly different in that it searches by keyword and first letter of surname. See image below.
I would advise trying one and if you don’t find your ancestor, try the other. They each use a different search algorithm so you may get lucky on the second search!
Enjoy this little windfall of genealogical joy. It may only last a year, so fill your information coffers while you can. Good luck and happy hunting!