ONLINE RESOURCES
ANCESTRY ¨ ancestry.co.uk Subscribers can search and download wills proved at the Prerogative Court of Canterbury (PCC); they are on thegenealogist.co.uk too. Ancestry also has a large collection of wills from Wiltshire, Gloucestershire, Dorset and a few from Yorkshire, and some indexes and extracts. BORTHWICK INSTITUTE ¨ york.ac.uk/borthwick/holdings/guides/ research- guides/probate- courts The Borthwick holds the vast majority of probate records for Yorkshire before 1858. The site explains what is held at the institute, but does not include an index. To search for wills at the Borthwick, you have to use the index on Findmypast at bit.ly/fmp-pcc-york. Via the index you can order a copy of a will direct from the Borthwick Institute for £13.50. FAMILYSEARCH ¨ familysearch.org/wiki/en/ England_ Probate_ Records The FamilySearch wiki has an excellent guide to English and Welsh probate records, with clear descriptions of the different kinds of records you come across and a map of probate jurisdictions. FINDMYPAST ¨ findmypast.co.uk As well as the Borthwick Institute index, Findmypast has probate records from Staffordshire, Leicestershire (currently browseonly) and Cheshire, as well as a range of indexes supplied by family history societies. THE INTERNET ARCHIVE ¨ archive.org Wills were a favourite topic of antiquarians, and a range of books have been compiled in the past that featured abstracts of wills, usually early ones. Many of these books have been digitised and added to archive.org. To see what is available for the county you are interested in, type its name followed by ‘wills’. Some of these books are also available on subscription sites. LOCAL INDEXES
discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ find-an-archive Most wills have yet to be digitised, but some record offices, such as Norfolk Record Office ( nrocat.norfolk.gov.uk), have put them online. Other record offices have made indexes available, as is the case for wills proved in Bristol between 1715 and 1858: archives.bristol.gov.uk/ willsindex.aspx. Many family history societies have also produced indexes to wills. THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES
nationalarchives.gov.uk/helpwith-your-research/research- guides/ wills-1384-1858 TNA has created a useful guide to the PCC, the most important of the church probate courts up to 1858. Originally it was mainly used by the well-off, but the wills of people of more modest means from the 1700s are often found here. Search by name or place, and you can download wills for a fee (note that they are also available on Ancestry). THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF WALES
library.wales/discover/nlw-resources/ wills Search and view images of wills and related probate documents, such as inventories and bonds from the Welsh church courts before 1858. There are also useful notes of the dates for which original and copy wills have survived for the different dioceses. NORTH EAST INHERITANCE DATABASE
familyrecords.dur.ac.uk/nei/data/ Search wills proved in the diocese of Durham. The site links directly to images of the wills available at familysearch.org.