Database of Wills

Howard Lake | 29 January 2015 | Blogs

I have not spent much time on this, but I was intrigued to read about the launch of a new database allowing the public to search a government archive of 41 million wills dating back to 1858. I am not sure how far back I will ever need to go, but this could be an interesting resource. It contains wills from England and Wales. Different procedures apply in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
The database also includes the wills of those who died while serving in the British armed forces between 1850 and 1986.
It is disappointing to note that they have not yet corrected the typo in the section “About the information contained in your grant and Will”.
There is a fee of £10 for each copy.
Finbar Cullen, ResearchPlus
Files – photo: Garsya on Shutterstock.com

About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale. He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.