Probated wills

[Jebber]

Yes, when it shows Administration with Will you will get everything, including the two Codicils.

[Foehn]

Thanks everyone. That worked well and the two wills arrived within a week. Now, the unenviable task of deciphering! If I fail, I will take them to a chemist to get them filled!

[BumbleB]

Don't forger that RootsChat members are very helpful - you could always try the "Deciphering" Forum, when you get stuck. 

[LizzieW]

I ordered 2 wills, one came within a few days but the other one didn't arrive even though I waited until after the expected date.  I wrote to the Probate Service who replied that there was a "Technical Issue" regarding sending documents to me.  (I decided that meant someone had forgotten to action my request!).  Then nearly a week later, I got another email with "the requested documents" attached.  This consisted of a "Grant of Letters of Administration, issued when a person has died without making a will (called intestate) and is issued to an administrator of the estate.  This is usually the lawful spouse if any, or nearest blood relative".  It did, however, show that the deceased had left £158844.19s.6d - quite a sizeable sum in 1910.

I thought it was very odd for a very rich businessman, not to have made a will and, sure enough, nearly 2 weeks later, I got another email from the Probate Service attaching a will which was 3 pages long.

His 4 sons were the executors and he had left nothing to my g.aunt his 2nd wife, despite having made the will some years after their marriage.  I guess he decided that he'd made all his money whilst his first wife was still alive and so he left everything to his children, although it was done through a trust.  As my g.aunt stayed in the house where the man died until her death in 1954 and her widowed daughter who had lived there too from 1915 also stayed there until her death in 1970.  All I can think is that the sons of the deceased allowed his widow and her daughter to stay there until their respective deaths.

[Foehn]

Don't forget that RootsChat members are very helpful - you could always try the "Deciphering" Forum, when you get stuck. 

That's good to know.  Have worked out that all "d"s are written like "b"s and the "s" in she is written  like a fancy "G"  while in words like assess the first s at least is written like a long tailed "f" but there may be phrases that elude me. Can jpeg snips be added to the deciphering forum?

LizzieW, know what you mean by businessmen and wills. Family oral stories confirm a will was made by Gt Gt grandfather and he left an estate in excess of $30,000 US$s yet he was declared intestate and the last Administrator (and last living heir)was only granted £800 by the probate court.  We'd love to know how all that wealth was gobbled up. Haven't found a copy of the will but know what happened to the original.

[goldie61]

Don't forget that RootsChat members are very helpful - you could always try the "Deciphering" Forum, when you get stuck. 

That's good to know.  Have worked out that all "d"s are written like "b"s and the "s" in she is written  like a fancy "G"  while in words like assess the first s at least is written like a long tailed "f" but there may be phrases that elude me. Can jpeg snips be added to the deciphering forum?

Yes. You will see this information when you go to attach a file to a post:
Allowed file types: txt, rtf, jpg, jpeg, gif, pdf, mpg, png, ged
Restrictions: 4 per post, maximum total size 900KB, maximum individual size 500KB