We have transcribed a large number of wills, administrations and inventories, almost all for England. In view of the time, effort and expense involved in doing this, there is a small charge should you require a full copy of our transcription - between £2 and £5 (far below the current rate if you were to purchase an original, or travel to a record office). An index to those documents can be accessed below. Please note that the vast majority relate to the north of England and East Anglia, although there are now quite a few others from other parts of the country.
The price generally reflects the length of the document, the amount of useful information within, the ease or difficulty in transcribing and, of course, the time taken to do the work. Some simply ask you to email. These are either almost impossible to read or are so short that we cannot ask for payment, so there is no charge for these. Some records are wills, others administrations or inventories, or a combination of the three. (If you would like to know exactly, then please contact us before buying.) They have been transcribed as accurately as we are able, but there may be gaps where the original (or the film of the original) has been difficult to read or is damaged. We can provide the full reference (if known) so that you can then order the original, should you wish to do so, from the appropriate archive, as copyright laws mean that we cannot provide you with an image. All transcripts are copyright Lynne Hall and Alison France and must not be reproduced or used elsewhere without our permission. Dates refer to the date of probate, not the date of death. There are now approximately 1650 transcribed wills.
Will transcripts: A-B C-E F-H I-L M-P R-T U-Z
In addition, we have extracted data from thousands of wills and administrations over many years, far more than in the transcript pages above. We now have a database of the names of testators, beneficiaries, witnesses, tenants - in fact, anyone who appears in a will that we have read! They will soon be available on the county pages to the left.
If you would like to see a full listing of all wills for the north of England and East Anglia that we have copied and from which data has been extracted, please see www.usmkfamilyhistory.com/our-wills