Reference Centre, Genealogy 101
Answers to Genealogy FAQs - Wills in England and Wales after 1858
The proving of all Wills throughout England and Wales, as of 1 January 1858, was moved into the bailiwick of the Principal Probate Registry. Your 1908 Will, for copying purposes, therefore, will be found at the Probate Registry office at York House, 31 York Place, Leeds, Yorkshire, telephone 0113 3896 133.
Application must be made to that office with payment of £1.50 for a copy of the Will. You will also have to include the date of death of the individual, last place of residence and possibly - if it is a common name - the name of the spouse or likely Executor. If you don't have the date you will have to request a search, the fee for which is £3.00.
There is a PDF postal-search request form at this link:
Application for a search. Download and complete the form with the requisite details and mail to:
The Postal Copies and Searches Department,
District Probate Registry,
York House,
31 York Place,
Leeds,
LS1 2BA
If you live in England - London - you can view the entire index to Wills and Administrations at:
London Probate Department,
Principal Registry of the Family Division,
First Avenue House,
42-49 High Holborn,
London
WC1V 6NP.
Telephone 020 7947 6939.
If you live elsewhere in Great Britain you can attend at the District Probate Registry for the area in which your ancestor lived and/or died, to view the index for that jurisdiction. Addresses for the District Probate Registry offices can also be found on the above website by clicking here.
If you live elsewhere, particularly North America, Australia, New Zealand, Europe, or in Britain but are unable to travel too far, you have several options that will eventually net you the sought-after Will, the first of which is the most expediant and least costly:
1. The Principal Probate Registry index is now available online for free searching at Gov.uk. The website permits three different searches:
1996 to present
1858-1996, and
Soldier's Wills
Surname and Year of Death fields on each of the three search options must be completed in order for the search function to work. If you do not know the year of death proceed to item #2, immediately below, and then return here. The search result will return an image from the Principal Probate Registry Index from which you can copy the details of the grant. Searching for surname Ruck in 1880 produced a three-page result, on the third of which pages was found the following entry:
1880 [year found at the top of the page].
[in the left-hand column] RUCK George. #686 Personal Estate under £7,000.
[in the right-hand column] 17 August. The Will of George Ruck late of 33 Lower-Fant-road Maidstone in the County of Kent Architect and Surveyor who died 20 June 1880 at 33 Lower-Fant-road was proved at the Principal Registry by Caroline Ruck of 33 Lower-Fant-road Widow the Relict and Alfred Brothers of 14 St. Ann's-square Manchester in the County of Lancaster Photographer the Executors.
2. If the year of death is not known - locate the death registration from either FreeBMD, the GRO website or one of the pay-per-view services. This will be sufficient to conduct a search for a grant of probate or administration on the Gov.uk website. The exact date of death (which is required to complete the postal application form for a Will) can then be lifted directly from the grant. See the example directly above. Note that the date of the grant appears first in the entry followed by the date of death after the name and address of the deceased. Once you have the date of death from the index you will be able to order a copy of the Will via PDF postal-search request form.
3. The second entirely free method for finding a probate calendar entry and Will is through Family Search. You will need to sign up for a free account before you'll be able to conduct a search or view online images.
Once you have located a calendar entry at the link given above you will then be able to search for the film that contains the Will for which you are looking and view it online for free. You will have to be at a Family Search Centre or at an affiliate public library in order to view the images online. The listing of Wills begins with January 1858 and continues over 11 pages up to and including December, 1925. For any Wills after that time you will have to go to the Probate Registry in England - see instructions above.
Records are arranged on the film by year and month. Within each month the men's Wills are arranged alphabetically by the first letter of the surname (i.e., all of the surnames beginning with 'M' are grouped together), then arranged by date. Women's Wills, also arranged by first letter of the surname, then by date, usually come after the men's Wills. If a month and a letter of the alphabet are split between two films, you will perhaps need to examine both films in order to find the applicable Will.
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