Enrollment options

Course image English: Probate Records
Basic English Records
EN-104: English: Probate Records
Course Summary:

This course examines some aspects related to English probate records. The most important probate documents are wills, inventories, administrations, guardianships, and Death Duty Registers.

Wills are a valuable source for genealogists because they usually mention family members, sometimes two or three generations. They're often the best or only means of verifying a family tree compiled from civil registration, census, or parish registers.

This course also offers suggestions and tips when using FamilySearch and other websites who hold documents and how to interpret the documentation you find.
Contact Hours: 18
Grading Scale: 70% Tests/30% Assignments
Last Updated: November 20, 2023
Course Length: 8 weeks
Course Content

MODULE 1 

INTRODUCTION
FamilySearch
Introduction to Probate Records

MODULE 2
WILLS

Making a Will
  • Who Could Make a Will?
  • How and when was a Will made?
  • Nuncupative Wills
  • Revocation by Marriage
Contents of a Will
  • The Preamble
  • The Text and Any Codicils
Types of Legacies
  • Executors, Trustees & Overseers
  • Attestation & Witnessing
  • Codicils
  • Evidence from Witnesses
Probate Act or Grant of Probate
  • After the Probate
  • Encumbered Estates
  • Lapsed Legacies
Reading Wills
  • Valuations of Estates
Recording the Contents of a Will
  • Transcribing & Abstracting
Longest & Shortest Wills
Expect Surprises!
Other Laws Affecting Wills

MODULE 3
ADMINISTRATIONS
When is an Administration Needed?
Who Can Be an Administrator?
Procedure for Administration
Intestacy Rules
What Records Were Kept?
Information in an Administration
Probate & Administration + Will
 

MODULE 4
PROBATE MATERIALS

Other Probate Materials
  • Non-Deposited Probate Records
  • Probate Accounts

Disputes over the Validity of a Will

MODULE 5
FINDING PROBATES
Locating Probate Records

What you need to start a search for a specific will
  • Finding Probates from 1858
  • Obtaining the Will and Probate
  • Finding Probates Before 1858
  • How to Find the Right “Chain” of Courts
  • Church Court Records
  • Lower Courts (Peculiar, Dean, Archdeacon & Bishop)
  • Indexes and Where to Find Them
  • Prerogative Court of York
  • Prerogative Court of Canterbury
  • Other Will Collections
  • Other Sources

Reasons for Not Finding a Will

MODULE 6
DEATH DUTY RECORDS

Estate Duty Office Registers
  • Genealogical Value of Death Duties
Death Duty Records
  • Using Death Duty Abstracts
Isle Of Man & Channel Islands Probate
  • Channel Island Probate
Welsh Wills
Conclusion
Additional Reading