Family History

Wills

Borthwick Institute for Archives
Prerogative Court of York wills before 1858. Click 'Archive guides,lists and finding aids'.
http://www.york.ac.uk/ inst/ bihr/

Findmypast.com - Death Duty Registers 1786 � 1903
Click the births, marriages and deaths tab and scroll down to search these registers. They serve as a consolidated index to all the wills and administrations that attracted death duties across all the many probate courts used before 1858
http://www.findmypast.com/

National Archives: Death Duty Registers
You can search 'country court' death duty registers (registers from courts other than the Prerogative Court of Canterbury) for the period 1796 to 1811
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ documentsonline/ death-duty.asp

National Archives: Wills
Prerogative Court of Canterbury (PCC) wills, 1384-1858. More than 1 million are online - you can search for wills and, for a fee, view images online.The Prerogative Court of Canterbury was the most important of the courts that proved wills. It dealt with the relatively wealthy individuals living mainly in the south of England and most of Wales (the area that was originally the ecclesiastical province of Canterbury).
http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ SearchUI/ Home/ OnlineCollections

National Library of Wales - Pre -1858 Wills
Welsh wills free to view online, plus the Digital Mirror giving online access to digitised collections
http://www.llgc.org.uk/ index.php?id=2

National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations),1861-1941
Now available on the Ancestry web site. Members of Bedford Borough or Central Bedfordshire libraries may search the National Probate Calendar free on Ancestry Library Edition web site in any Bedford Borough or Central Bedfordshire library
http://www.galaxy.bedfordshire.gov.uk/ webingres/ bedfordshire/ vlib/ 0.local_studies/ local_studies_a_z.htm

Probate Service
For details of how and where to search for wills, click 'Probate Guidance' then 'Guide to obtaining probate records' then follow the relevant links. The Probate Service has almost all wills in England and Wales since 1858. See also the separate WebLinks entry for the National Probate Calendar
http://www.hmcourts-service.gov.uk/ cms/ wills.htm

York Medieval Probate Index 1267 - 1500
Index to over 10,000 wills available on this British Origins site
http://www.originsnetwork.com/ Help/ aboutNWI-ymed.aspx#more

York Peculiars Probate Index 1383 - 1883
Index to over 25,000 wills available on this British Origins site
http://www.originsnetwork.com/ Help/ aboutNWI-ypec.aspx#more

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