I. PROBATE RECORDS: ENGLAND AND WALES

A. Probate Records are the documents which concern the disposition of a deceased person's real and personal property. Probate Records include wills, codicils, inventories, letters of administration, act books, calendars, and other records. They exist in a regular series for England, from the 14th century to the present, constituting, therefore, one of the most valuable sources for genealogists. They are especially valuable in proving relationships of family members. When parish registers have been lost or were never kept, and the child's name, birth or christening date and place, and parentage are not otherwise determinable, the father's will may be used to have the baptism, endowment, and sealing to parents performed.

B. Overview and Background

Not all Englishmen left wills or had their estates administered by a court-appointed person after their decease, but enough did that a genealogist should use probate records routinely in his searches. Persons of all social classes and all degrees of affluence left wills, although it is indisputable that the better off an ancestor was socially and/or economically, the more likely it is that you will be able to trace his ancestry or his descendants in probate records.

Prior to 1858, the probate courts were mainly ecclesiastical and were about 300 in number, exercising jurisdiction in complicated patterns. After January, 1858, the ecclesiastical courts were abolished and a simpler civil system was set up. If the deceased left a will, he is called the testator and named executor(s) to carry out his wishes. If he left no will, he died intestate, and the court appointed administrator(s) to dispose of the property to the best interests of all the legal heirs and creditors. In either case, however, the heirs may have chosen to bypass the courts, to avoid the fees and delay, in which case there will be no court documents.

C. Definitions of Terms

1. Act Book - a chronological account of the court's actions -- proving of wills, granting of letters of administration, etc.

2. Administration - the management and disposal under legal authority of the estate of an intestate or of a testator having no competent executor; commonly referred to as admon.

3. Letters of Administration - the court documents granting permission to the administrators to proceed with the disposition of the estate.

4. Administrator - the person legally vested by a probate court with the right of administration of an intestate's estate.

5. Codicil - legal instrument made subsequent to a will, which modifies it in certain respects

6. Executor/Executrix - person appointed by a testator to execute his will or to see its provisions carried into effect after his decease.

7. Intestate - (adj) having made no will; (noun) one who dies having made no will

8. Jurisdiction - area over which a particular probate court had influence. There was usually more than one court having jurisdiction over a particular place.

9. Probate - official proving of a will, i.e., the authentication of a will by the court exercising jurisdiction so the executor(s) can proceed to comply with the will's devises and legacies

10. Testator - person who leaves a will in force at his death

11. Will - written instrument legally executed by which a mean makes disposition of his estate to take effect after his death. Sometimes both the original will and the court's copy, or registered will survive.

D. Availability of Probate Records

1. Pre-1858

a. Anthony J. Camp (Wills and Their Whereabouts, London: Society of Genealogists, 1963. Ref 942 S2wa) and J.S.W.Gibson (A Simplified Guide to Probate Jurisdictions, Solihull: Federation of Family History Societies, 1985 [3rd Edition]. 942 P23g) give the exact location and accessibility of all probate records.

b. Most pre-1858 wills, admons, calendars are available on microfilm through the library system of the Family history Library. Use the catalog, the probate keys, or Pratt's guide books for call numbers.

2. Post-1858 wills are all, original or copy, at the Principle Probate Registry, and microfilm copies of the indexes for 1858-1957 and the wills for 1858-1925 are at the Family History Library. Records more than 100 years old are transferred each year to the Principal Probate Registry, Family Division of the High Court, Somerset House, Strand, London, England WC2R 1LP).

E. Why search Probate Records?

1. to establish relationships

2. to establish specific localities

3. to verify deaths

4. to compile complete families

5. to resolve identity conflicts