Grants & Wills from HMCTS 1858 to Date - RCJ search room to close 12 Dec 2014

[dawnsh]

**Please note that the topic title has been amended**

Please see reply #10

After a very long time, it would appear that HMCTS have finally got around to launching a beta version of their 'find a will' service.

https://probatesearch.service.gov.uk/#wills

Using information on recent wills I've acquired I've noted the following:

you can only search for & order wills where the deceased died after 1996

you have to enter a year of death so you can't easily do speculative searching for deaths after 2007

the search results do not show a last known address, so if you have a frequently occurring first name and surname combination (I tried Edward Brown died 1998) and don't have an exact date of death or the will was probated in another part of the country you may not get the right one.

You appear to have 31 days to view the document online and print at home during that time. You don't get a copy in the post.

I've yet to finalise an order and pay by credit card but this service might be useful to those chatters overseas who can't send a cheque for £10 sterling because they don't have a UK bank account.

I've sent in my feedback and will let you know if I get an update.

Dawn

[carol8353]

Thanks for that Dawn,looks useful- would be even more useful if you could narrow it down by christian name though !

Carol

[dawnsh]

you can if you do an 'advanced' search 

[carol8353]

you can if you do an 'advanced' search 

Ah didn't notice that ! 

Thanks.

[dawnsh]

Update

HMCTS are planning to have all the calendars right back to 1858 available in the coming months.

Should fill the gap nicely between Ancestry stopping at 1966 and 1996.

[bibliotaphist]

I've only just discovered this service today. Very useful, where there is an unusual/distinctive name, for discovering a recent date of someone's death, even without paying for the will itself.

[GrahamSimons]

you have to enter a year of death so you can't easily do speculative searching for deaths after 2007

Dawn

If you use Advanced Search (I've just worked this out), you can do a speculative search because there's a "Next year" button beneath the search results. Tedious, but if you only need to cover 2007-14, doesn't take long. Will be much more tedious as more data gets released!

[rosie99]

Tedious, but if you only need to cover 2007-14, doesn't take long. Will be much more tedious as more data gets released!

But not as tedious (or should I say as much fun) as going to the offices and wading through the registers 

[smudwhisk]

I've only just discovered this service today. Very useful, where there is an unusual/distinctive name, for discovering a recent date of someone's death, even without paying for the will itself.

Does need to be remembered that this is designed for ordering a copy of the Probates not for genealogy research, and of course its government provided .... 

That said, personally I don't think there should be much extra information provided online because of privacy issues on size of estate, location and probably names of executors.  As many executors are now relatives, it could cause them issues if someone knows the potential size of their inheritance.  I know this information is available in the Probate Registers but you have to manually obtain this.  I will probably get shot down for saying this but it does need to be remembered. Other countries have far tighter rules on the provision of more recent information than us.