Who Do You Think You Are? Encyclopedia of Genealogy (21 page)

Although parish records were kept for both Scotland and Ireland, they often begin later than their counterparts in England and Wales.

Parish registers were first introduced in Scotland in 1553, but only a very small number survive for the sixteenth century, the majority starting from the late seventeenth or early eighteenth centuries, when the Presbyterian Church became the Established Church in Scotland. These were mainly baptism and marriage records as burial records were seldom kept. Additionally, although the registers do not go back that far, the nature of the information is usually more detailed than those of English and Welsh parishes. Baptisms will usually record the mother's maiden name (as taking the husband's name was not always done). An official marriage ceremony was not compulsory in Scotland and often people would just make proclamations of intention to marry. These proclamations contain the same information as official marriage registers and were recorded in the same registers.

Perhaps the greatest advantage of Scottish parish registers is that they are mostly kept centrally, at the General Record Office of Scotland (GROS). The institute houses birth and baptism registers from 1553 to 1854, and marriages and banns for the same date. As these are part of the collection of the GROS, copies of the registers, including images of the actual registers, have also been placed online at www.scotlands people.gov.uk. These can be searched (at a cost) and it is possible to do a large amount of research online, without having to visit GROS in person.

Roman Catholicism was disestablished as the official state religion in 1560. Thereafter, due mainly to the influence of John Knox, Presbyterianism began to increase in popularity in Scotland. It became the official Church of Scotland by 1690. There were also groups of non-conformists – Episcopalians, Methodists and Quakers. Parish records for these are now either with the National Archives of Scotland or at local register offices. The National Archives of Scotland also house copies of Roman Catholic registers for Scotland, with the originals still being held at individual parishes.

Despite the majority of the population being Roman Catholic, the Protestant Church of Ireland was the official established Church until 1869. It became compulsory to keep registers from 1634, although little survives this far back. Most registers were routinely kept from the mid-eighteenth century and were stored at the Public Record Office after 1870. Unfortunately, they suffered the same fate as Irish census records, more than half being destroyed by fire in the Civil War in 1922. Remaining records are now at the National Archives of Ireland in Dublin, with collections after 1921 relating to Northern Ireland stored at the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, Belfast.

‘
Parish registers in Ireland suffered the same fate as census records, many being destroyed in 1922
.'

Although the majority of the Irish population has always been, and still is, Roman Catholic, Ireland suffered a variety of anti-Catholic laws from the eighteenth century onwards, until Catholicism was legalized in 1829. Hence, there was no systematic parish register system kept for fear of prosecution. Nevertheless, some parishes did keep registers before 1829. The cities of Dublin and Cork have information from the mid-eighteenth century. County registers were not kept till some time later. These parish registers, where they exist, survive locally, although copies may be available in the National Library of Ireland.

Most parish registers for the Channel Islands are still held at the appropriate parish. Jersey Archives does have copies of parish registers for a number of parishes. The Archive also has all the indexes produced by the Channel Islands Family History Societies for all parish churches until 1842, along with transcriptions to all parish registers till 1842 and some non-conformist registers. The Priaulx Library in Guernsey houses parish registers for that island.

Parish registers can be found at the appropriate parish church. However, copies dating from the early seventeenth century to 1883 are also available at the Manx National Heritage Library. The Library also holds sets of records for non-conformist registers, but Roman Catholic registers are still mostly held by the individual churches themselves.

The last will and testament of a relative can provide a unique insight into their family life, standard of living, circle of friends and even personality. Although very few actual wills survive, many thousands of registers exist which contain copies, and these are available both online and offline. This chapter examines the way wills were registered, where to find the records and a few additional sources you can use to track the whereabouts of a registered will.

It is often the case that you can learn the most about a person at the end of their life, which is why one of the most important sources of information that a genealogist can unearth is the last will and testament of an ancestor. Wills are the written legal document used to dispose of the property and personal possessions – the ‘estate' – of recently deceased individuals, and are helpful to family historians because they can, and often do, provide a lot of detail about the deceased's family, including spouses, children, siblings and even parents. It is therefore possible to tie in many generations through one document. Wills often give information about the occupation of the deceased and where exactly they lived (sometimes the exact house will be mentioned), and in many cases you might find specific provisions about how and where they are to be buried – which in turn can lead you to a specific churchyard, gravestone and burial record.

‘Wills are the most intimate and personal of all official documents
.'

The amount of property bequeathed is a useful indicator as to the wealth and social status of your ancestor. Indeed, you may be in for a surprise, as the ‘last will and testament' of an ancestor may include names of illegitimate offspring or details of other family skeletons that might not be documented elsewhere. As wills are often written in the words of your ancestors (even if dictated to a third party) they are the most intimate of official documents, providing invaluable insights into the personality of the deceased – eccentric last requests, or comments about the people they are leaving their possessions to.

… make the most of wills and probate documents

1.
Probate records are the one last key set of records we can all search for from the medieval period right up to the present day. However, it is worth bearing in mind that if the last piece of information you have for your great-great-grandfather was a census return listing him as a pauper in a workhouse, the likelihood of him having left a will is very slim, although in fairness people did not have to be exceedingly wealthy to write a will
.

2.
Wills can be a mine of genealogical information, giving names of extended family members, explaining relationships between people, and listing their occupations and addresses. If you are lucky enough to find a really detailed will, you could build a small family tree just from the people and relationships it lists, although you should always remember to double-check these details with civil registration documents, parish registers and census records where possible
.

3.
Probate documents are brilliant for investigating family feuds, as some people would make a point of excluding close family members from their inheritance and go to the lengths of explaining why they didn't want that relation to have any part of their estate. You can get an idea of how wealthy your family would have been from the types of items that were left in their wills, and you may even find that inventories of their possessions have been kept
.

4.
In terms of building your family tree, wills are particularly useful for filling in names and details from the twentieth century and for the period before the beginning of civil registration in the early nineteenth century, when there is a lack of census returns and other substantiating material
.

The practice of writing wills goes back hundreds of years, far before the start of parish records in 1538, although the earliest wills were generally written by the more privileged members of society who had sufficient money and possessions to pass on. The Romans used wills, and evidence suggests that the practice was continued by the Anglo-Saxons
since there are a few surviving wills that date from the ninth century. After the Norman Conquest and throughout the Middle Ages, the system of primogeniture, or descent of property to the first-born son, became entrenched. Under the feudal system, with land being the main asset and source of wealth for much of society, it was usually passed on automatically to the eldest son, without the need for a specific instruction in a will. However, assets other than land (such as gold, money, furniture and other material goods) were termed the ‘estate' and would often be divided into portions and left to other family members by the writing of a separate document called a ‘testament'; for example, one third of the estate would be left to the deceased's widow to support her, with the remainder divided between any other children.

Over time, people wished to avoid having to give their land automatically to their eldest son and used various means to prevent this from happening, such as passing on the land in their lifetime or placing it in trusts. Eventually the authorities recognized that the need to pass on land via a will was an important development. Therefore the Statute of Wills was passed in 1540, which stipulated that henceforth it would be legal to bequeath land in a will to people other than the eldest son. After 1540 wills and the existing ‘testaments' transferring personal possessions were usually amalgamated into one document – hence the phrase ‘last will and testament'.

Any man aged over 14 could write a will, whilst a woman over the age of 12 who possessed land or estate in her own right could do so too. There are technical terms used to describe people making a will – a
man is referred to as a ‘testator' whilst a woman is known as a ‘testatrix'. The Wills Act of 1837 raised the age of writing a will to 21 for both sexes. Those excluded from writing wills were the insane, prisoners and those excommunicated from the Established Church. Additionally, married women could not legally own anything until 1882 when the Married Women's Property Act was passed, so the majority of women writing wills until that point were spinsters and widows. Non-conformists and Roman Catholics could write wills, but – as will be explained below – they would have to be ‘proved' in one of the Church of England's ecclesiastical courts to have legal status before 1858, when the process was taken over by the secular courts and religion no longer proved an obstacle to writing legal wills.

In general, the wealthier the individual was, the more likely it is that they would have written a will. However, this is by no means true for every person and it is always advisable to look for a will, even if your ancestor was from the humbler sections of society. A will would usually be drafted by lawyers, following instructions from the testator. An executor (or executrix, if female) would also have to be nominated, who would be legally responsible for ensuring the deceased's instructions were duly followed. Before 1858, the executor or executrix would have to attend an ecclesiastical court and legally ‘prove' that the will was genuine. This judicial process was known as the granting of ‘probate' (probate meaning ‘to prove' in Latin) and will registers were created, containing accurate copies of each will for which probate was granted. These will registers are, in most cases, the only documentation that survives as a result of the process of probate, as original wills would have been returned to the executor on completion of probate. Therefore these registers are primarily what you will be looking for in archives. Those wills that survive are likely to be found among private or family papers, some of which might be deposited in county archives along with other estate records. Any wills that were not collected by the executor were likely to have been retained by the relevant ecclesiastical court, and so might have been deposited in a diocesan record office or county archive.

In certain cases there would be no requirement for probate. This occurred when there was no concern that the will might be challenged by disgruntled members of the deceased's family. The family could
therefore avoid the cost of going to probate and the will would be settled privately. In these cases no public record of the will would be produced and, if the will survives, it will not be found in the appropriate record office but amongst the family papers or, depending on the time period in question, with the solicitor who drew it up or stored it for safekeeping.

Occasionally, a will may have been dictated orally on the deathbed of the testator. These were termed ‘nuncupative wills' and required statements from two witnesses in order for probate to be granted. After 1837 such wills were only valid for military personnel who may have dictated them prior to being killed in battle.

The earliest wills may have been written in Latin, or have some of the preamble in Latin. These early wills also tend to contain a large amount of religious language, although this became less common over time. The more modern wills should be in English. The testator would also be careful to declare himself or herself as ‘sound of mind although sick of body', as a will written by anyone deemed to be insane would not be valid.

Inventories were detailed lists of the material goods left by the deceased. As such they are extremely useful documents. They can give a precious insight into your ancestor, really bringing him or her to life as a real person, and vividly displaying their wealth and standard of living, as well as their personality and interests. Lists that include such items as jewellery, furniture, silks and linen display a relatively good standard of living and comfort.

Inventories would be compiled shortly after the individual's death by a small number of ‘appraisers', who were usually family or friends. They would compile a list for every room, including any livestock that may have been owned. These lists would often appear with surviving original wills or will registers retained by the ecclesiastical courts, as officials insisted on having this documentation during the process of ‘proving' a will between the years 1530 and 1782. During this period it was obligatory for executors or administrators to provide this information, although after 1782 inventories were only compiled in matters of dispute.

Not every individual left a will dealing with his or her estate. An individual may have died suddenly at a young age; others may simply have chosen not to. Those who did not leave a will or last testament are known as ‘intestates'. Even if there was no will, the deceased's estate still had to be duly administered and legal systems were developed to deal with this eventuality, the court issuing ‘letters of administration', often referred to by the abbreviation ‘admon'. Prior to 1858, the ecclesiastical court would authorize an administrator or two (usually a close relative or, in cases where the individual died owing money, a creditor) to collect the assets of the deceased and, after payment of any debt, distribute them according to the law at the time.

The process of administering the deceased's estate was only required when there was a large amount of property that needed to be transferred to a member of the family not already in possession of it, for example if the deceased had left no children or widow and a more distant relative was the next of kin. Where the intestate only had a small amount to distribute, the family would usually agree amongst one another and consequently no legal record would have been created.

If letters of administration do survive they can provide some useful information to family historians, such as the deceased's date of death and place, residence and the exact relationship of the administrators to the deceased, although they will naturally be less detailed than actual wills.

In order to begin searching for a will – or the record of its probate in a court – it is essential to remember the date 11 January 1858, when a radical reorganization of the system of proving a will was introduced by legislation. Prior to this date, wills would have been proved in a number of different ecclesiastical courts (see below) and therefore stray originals not returned to the family, and the will registers created during the process of probate, may be deposited in various archives – national institutions, specialist repositories, clerical record offices and
county archives. The Probate Act of 1857 ended the authority of the ecclesiastical courts in granting probate and thereafter the process became a civil issue. From 11 January 1858 probate would have been granted in a number of district probate registries under the jurisdiction of the central Court of Probate. Henceforth copies of all registered wills are held centrally at the Principal Probate Registry.

‘Letters of administration provide useful information, though they are less detailed than wills
.'

As mentioned above, probate prior to 1858 would be granted in an ecclesiastical court of the Church of England, of which there were over 300 operating at various levels of authority. The precise court in which probate would take place depended on where the testator lived, where he owned property and the value of that property. A comprehensive guide to these ecclesiastical courts, their relative hierarchies and jurisdictions can be found in a book by J. Gibson,
Probate Jurisdictions: where to look for wills
(Genealogical Publishing Company, 2002). A very brief summary is given below.

It is also important to stress that, in the majority of cases, what you will be looking for is not the actual will itself, but the will register of the court in which it was proved. Most of the time, the original wills were collected by the executors or administrators, with only those that were left behind being retained by the ecclesiastical court. However, to create a permanent record that probate had occurred, and to prevent fraudulent administration of the terms of the will, the legally proven will was copied into a will register created by the relevant ecclesiastical court. These records survive in far greater numbers, and effectively provide the closest written record to all wills that passed through the probate system.