More free records

The feature in the February 2018 issue about free online sources was helpful for readers like myself, but I would like to draw attention to an omission in the probate section for anyone with north-east ancestors. This is the North East Inheritance Database containing the names of testators and intestate persons in the probate records of Durham and Northumberland, which are freely available at family records.dur.ac.uk/nei/data/simple. php. In addition, wills from 1650 to 1857 and administration bonds from 1650 to 1857 can be viewed for free via a link from the NEI website to images of the original records hosted on familysearch.org.

Readers might also be interested to know that Northumberland and Durham FHS (NDFHS) is currently preparing an index to the names mentioned within the probate records of the two counties for the period 1701–1858. Seven indexes viewable on computers running Windows and containing a total of 218,718 names have been completed, and the remaining ones are expected to be finished within two years.

Anyone is welcome to view the seven completed indexes free of charge at the society’s research centre in Newcastle, and copies of individual indexes can be purchased from the NDFHS website ( ndfhs.org.uk). Douglas Burdon, vice chairman of NDFHS Editor replies: Thanks for letting us know, Douglas. That’s a great resource for those of us with northeastern ancestors.