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Calendar of Wills and Administrations, 1858-1920

9 Apr By

The FamilySearch website has a very useful and free of charge database for identifying probate material. “Ireland, Calendar of Wills and Administrations, 1858-1920” is an index to the published calendars. The original published books are alphabetized within each year. The database on FamilySearch means you can search for an extended amount of time, even when you only have sketchy information.

The published calendars cover all counties up through 1917. After that there are separate calendars. This index to calendars is also duplicated, and free of charge at the National Archives of Ireland website.

The Scope of the Search

Much like other websites, the database search capability does pose some difficulties. Searches tend to have standardized fields, most of which do not apply. For this reason you might want to put in the limited information; such as name, county of death and range of dates.

You may be surprised who left wills. For example, these calendars start in 1858, a decade after the massive deaths and immigrations due to the Potato Famine. The reduction in the population meant land and wealth was freed up for many who stayed. So although your ancestor may have immigrated, siblings may have stayed and took over family holdings.

If you know a townland where the family lived, then you should be able to determine relatives who stayed. However, do not rely on a townland name when using the database search fields. You still will need to go into the calendar itself, which is scanned as part of this database.

The Search Does Not Stop with the Index

Once you have found entries in the index that are of interest to you, then you will need to click onto the image. At that point, you are linked to the image of the book itself.  It will provide a basic abstract of the original will or administration.

From the abstract you will need to look at the microfilm of the original document. This will be a manuscript, which can be found at the Family History Library.  The originals are housed at the National Archives of Ireland. By referencing the manuscript, you will have all the information in the document. The exception is the Principle Registry, which records do not survive.

Reconstructing the Family History

The index can be used in conjunction with the Griffith’s revision books, church registers, and the 1901 and 1911 censuses. In short, a more complete picture of your family history can be reconstructed through this will database.

If you would like help with your genealogy please call 385-214-0925.

Don’t Hesitate to Question a Database

1 Dec By Leave a Comment

Recently I was faced with whether or not to question what a database said. Either way would have taken me down a different research avenue. I chose to question and hope my hunch was correct.

I had a reference from a Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) database quoting an administration index for an 1839 Armagh Diocese estate. It gave the name, year, and the townland of residence. So I knew this was for the family in question. Then came the quote at the bottom of the page which stated:

“The original documents referred to in this index do not exist. No further information, other than that recorded above, has survived.”

My first thought was “Not so fast!” I knew abstracts or second copies often survive. I reasoned if one existed, it may tell me more.

The PRONI database was technically correct, the originals were destroyed in the 1922 Four Courts Fire in Dublin, when the archive when up in smoke. I knew my year 1839 was important because it was included in the Inland Revenue records which were abstracts originally filed in London (not Dublin). They are on microfilm at the Family History Library: www.familysearch.org

I looked at the Inland Revenue index for 1839, and found my entry. The index alone told me the administrator’s name and the folio number, which was basically a page number. Based upon the index, I pulled the microfilm for the year and looked for the folio. Not only did the manuscript abstract tell me how much the estate was worth; it also told me the date the person died. In this case the administrator was an administratrix – his remarried widow. It said, widow, and also gave her maiden name.

The moral of this story is if I had believed the index without question, I would have missed some very important pieces of information. This extra information allowed me to find the second husband in Griffith’s Primary Valuation (1847-64) and learn what happened to the wife who was of course also ancestral.

Immigrant Wills and Irish Birth Places

7 Oct By Leave a Comment

Sometimes in our search to find birth places in Ireland, we forget about wills. When people died leaving an estate, this becomes a legal matter. If there was family left in Ireland, then something may have been left to them. As a result their residence in Ireland is named.

This doesn’t necessarily mean this is the birth place you are seeking. This is where you have to be careful. Perhaps the immigrant’s siblings married and moved further away. This would especially be true with sisters. At that point, you would need to trace out their lives and see if that leads you to the birth place for all the siblings.

This strategy works especially well when the parish registers in Ireland have either been destroyed or they do not begin early enough to help in your research. It also works very well in the colonial period of North America as many people still had some active ties to Ireland. If colonial wills have been published in a book, then perhaps the index has a place name section. 

When we are talking about wills, you have to keep in mind that only certain classes of people left wills. They are not always the wealthy, but average people having enough to generate a will.  Also, keep in mind that if your family started poor upon immigrating, this doesn’t mean they remained poor. So keep an open mind about when to look for wills and when to move on to another record source.

Do not neglect wills for the siblings of your ancestor who also immigrated. They may also have mentioned the family in Ireland. This is why it is important to take the entire family unit, and research them out. The moral to the story of immigrant wills and Irish birthplaces, is to ALWAYS look for them.

South Africa Death Notices

15 Sep By Leave a Comment

More Irish spent time in South Africa than you might think. A major source they left behind are “death notices.” This is a primary source for documenting birth places, and is contained in a deceased persons estate file. Estates date from 1832 in the Orange Free State. All the files are open to the public and housed in a South African archive or are on microfilm at the Family History Library: www.familysearch.org

The death notices are “fill in the blank” and was generated soon after a person died, usually by a relative. Information can include, name, occupation, address, birth place, date and place of death, age at death, names of parents and spouses (living and dead), children, and siblings. Of course, this is if the form was filled out completely!

The estate file itself usually includes a copy of the will with the typical information found in such a document. However, the provisions for a will was that the death notice was to be completed first and there was enough in the estate to even warrant opening a case file.

The Genealogical Society of South Africa: www.genza.org.za is currently compiling an index to the “Cape Masters Office Estate Files” which will be appearing online. 

The FHL collections by province are as follows: Cape (1834-1989); Orange Free State (1832-1989); Natal (1851-1950); Transvaal (1869-1958); Zululand (1890-1903). Make sure to look at for indexes to the estate files in the FHL collections.

Considering where South Africa is geographically located, its people had access to shipping lanes worldwide. Irish-South Africans can be found in most major countries where the other Irish settled. It may be within your family, or a branch of your family, that the birth place in Ireland is found through a death notice.

A “Super Index” to Will Indexes

12 Jul By Leave a Comment

An incredible, but little known, resource is Super Index: A Compilation of Available Irish Will Indexes 1270-1860 (Salt Lake City, UT: J & J Limited, 2000), compiled by Gloria Bangerter then edited and alphabetized by Joyce Parsons and Jeanne Jensen. It is a massive alphabetical index to indexes compiled in 11 volumes, using the Family History Library (FHL) microfilm and books: www.familysearch.org

Most of the originals referred to in this index were destroyed in 1922. However, second copies, abstracts and extracts do survive for many of the estates mentioned. The first step is to consult the index to see if a will was generated; the second step is to look for a surviving copy. The index itself is on microfilm as follows: A-C, Volumes 1-3 (#1145963 items 11-13); D-E, G-M, Mc, Volumes 4-5 pt. 2, 6-8 (#1145964); F, Volume 5 pt. 1 (#1145972 item 21); N-Z, Volumes 9-11 (#1145965 items 1-3).

The index lists approximately 210,000 names. It lists the given name of the person and the year of the will. It also shows whether it was a will or administration bond, the county, whether it was dealt with by the Prerogative Court or by which Consistorial Court.   

 This index can launch your search for surviving second copies, extracts and abstracts. It can also be used as a locator for families, and is a helpful tool if you are dealing with 1600s and 1700s immigration problems. That may be all you need to launch into other record types.

Irish Wills at the National Archives of Ireland

30 May By Leave a Comment

When the Public Record Office in Dublin was burned during the 1922 Irish Civil War, the majority of the wills were destroyed. Efforts soon were underway to call in second copies held locally. The resulting gathered records create a major collection for the now National Archives of Ireland (NAI). Much of the collections has been microfilmed and are at the Family History Library (FHL).

There are several ways to access the NAI will collections. One is the “Testamentary Documents Card Index” covering the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries:

Surname          FHL#

A-B                 1565816

C-D                 1565817

D-G                 1565818

H-K                 1565819

L-M                 1471894

M-R                 1471895

S-W                 1471897

W-Z                 1471898

The NAI collections have been indexed, with reference numbers on the website “Irish Origins” website: www.irishorigins.com database, “Irish Will Index, 1484-1858.” With the NAI reference, you can order the document from the NAI or examine the collections at the FHL to see if it has been microfilmed.

While most of this online index is composed of wills or related testamentary matters (wills, probates, administrations), about 10% of the database is not. This additional material includes mostly marriage licenses and genealogical abstracts. It covers all of Ireland, including Ulster and corresponds with the Testamentary Card Index at the NAI.

The key to accessing the wills gathered at the NAI is the indexes. Chances are they are on microfilm through the FHL. This makes researching for surviving copies easier than ever.

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