Cheshire Wills & Probate

[jubee]

I've just discovered that FindMyPast have made available copies of Cheshire Wills and Probate records, including images.

I had already ordered copies from Chester Archives of some definite known ancestors wills, however I've made a discovery by looking at a will of the brother of my 4x grt grandmother Sarah Hulme. I had come to a bit of a brickwall in that I had two or three possibilities for her baptism each with different parents. As her brother's will mentions all his siblings and Sarah as well as her husband's name I was able to look for baptisms of her brother and Sarah and siblings with the same parents. After a long process of elimination over several hours I've found Sarah's parents at long last 

It just goes to show that "going round the houses" things which looked seemingly insolvable, are not really.

I'm currently looking into other brickwalls and see if the same trick will work with those!!!

jubee

[LizzieW]

Thank you for that Jubee, I should read the news on FindMyPast more often   I have many ancestors from Cheshire and have already bought 4 wills, although they weren't very expensive buying them from Cheshire, but now I'll be able to look at the ones that may, or may not be, my ancestors.

Lizzie

[jubee]

You've hit the nail on the head with your phrase "that may, or may not be, my ancestors"......

Like you say it doesn't seem that expensive buying the odd will or certificate here and there but when things are uncertain then the costs can soon mount up buying things in the "hope" that you've picked the right one.....

[mshrmh]

Is anybody else finding that FindMyPast's indexing seems off - I looked for some wills I'd already got from Cheshire with mixed results. I ended up searching on the Cheshire index & then on FindMyPast - the latter is either missing some wills (I did check they were wills & not admons in case) or they aren't indexed - one I did find said five pages - two were the will the third a Cheshire RO marker and fourth & fifth another person's will. Is this a case where they've done the indexing in a hurry & been inaccurate?

I've already reported a transcription error for place in relation to a will I had - the place they had for my ancestor isn't mentioned in the documentation at all, so I can only assume it came as a default or from a previous will 

Cheshire's index is at:
http://archivedatabases.cheshire.gov.uk/RecordOfficeWillEPayments/search.aspx

[kathb]

Hi, FindMyPast only has the Wills up to 1911, I wonder why?  The archives at Chester have them up to 1940.  Surely the 100 year rule doesn't apply here!!!
Regards
Kathb

[LizzieW]

Jubee - Fortunately the wills I bought are my ancestor's wills, I was almost 100% certain they were.  They are of my 2 x g.grandparents, one of my 3 x g.grandfathers and one of my 4 x g.grandfathers.  Now to look for the missing ones - if they made wills.  The 4 x g.grandfather is grandfather to 2 x g.grandfather, so I wonder why 3 x g.grandfather in that line doesn't appear to have made a will.  I can't believe he didn't, so that's one to search for, amongst others.

Kathb - I presume they've digitised the oldest wills to start with, and in my case that's what I'm interested in.  After 1900 my direct Cheshire line moved to Manchester.  If in time, FindMyPast have the later wills on line, I'll read them but I don't want to purchase them, getting certs and wills for direct lines is expensive enough.

Lizzie

[kathb]

Hi, Lizzie, although Cheshire Archives are not expensive, I must have paid out in excess of £60 in Wills.  Its not a cheap hobby this.  I will wait and see if they load anything after 1911 or look them up at the archive on my next visit.
Regards
Kathb

[chesters]

Hi, are there only certain wills that have images? When I search there only seems to be the option of buying the transcripts (I'm not a subscriber though), or do you buy the transcript first?? Also, I assume the these transcripts are the full wills rather than abstracts??

Chesters

[mshrmh]

Chesters - the wills are the copies that Chester Archives have - ie the old church court (pre1858 IIRC) will be the originals; those after that (civil system) are copies (transcripts) that are in a book - handwritten - the originals for those will be held by the Court Service.

All those they have should have images, though as I posted earlier if you use the index on the Cheshire website you may find wills that FindMyPast are not listing - I get the impression they've done their own indexing and there are differences. I've also found looking at one post 1858 will on FindMyPast I got the first part (bottom right of the open double page of the book) but they hadn't added the part that was on the next page and unlike the census there's no next image button. This was a will I'd already got, so didn't matter to me, but does indicate there are imperfections in FindMyPast's system.

If you search on the Chester database it does tell you if it was a will or administration (admon) - if you're not an FindMyPast subscriber I suppose you can compare costs of credits vs Chester's charge. Chester's charge is cheaper than the Court Service for civil wills, but you're getting a transcript rather than photocopy of the original.