RootsChat.Com
General => Armed Forces => World War One => Topic started by: ev on Thursday 29 August 13 12:23 BST (UK)
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Just spotted this , not sure if it has been mentioned before -
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-23861821
ev
Added -
https://probatesearch.service.gov.uk/
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You’ll be able to access the wills for 31 days.
You may have to wait up to 10 days for some documents.
Wills are provided for personal use only: you must get the relatives’ permission if you want to publish them in any way.
Looks like there is a £6 charge(for viewing ?)
Scottish informal Wills(from paybooks , I think) are referenced here -
http://www.nas.gov.uk/onlineCatalogue/ (Click on the search button at the top)
ev
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The Probate Service acknowledged they had these wills the best part of 2 years ago. They donot appear in any of the calendars.
Glad to see they have finally got their act together and started to make them available.
HMCTS charge £6 for a copy will and/or grant of representation so this is the same fee.
I haven't got the need for one but hope they have managed to sort out online payments as this is a 'first' for them.
Dawn
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Only the search function is available at the moment, there is no "Payment" process working.
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an American company called iron mountain are the ones who did the digitising apparently , read it in daily mail online this am .
regards
trevor
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Hi,
Thanks for the link ev.
I have just found my great uncle who died in France in 1915 have paid for his will
which I have been informed will be downloaded within 10 working days and will be available to view
for 31 days from the download date.
Midlad.
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Iron Mountain manage the storage facility where all the wills are kept. They are not stored onsite at the Principal Registry in Holborn any longer.
Dawn
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Quote
Her Majesty's Court and Tribunal Service (HMCTS) has worked with Iron Mountain to digitise its historic archive of 230,000 WW1 wills, written by soldiers as they headed to the Western Front.
Does anyone know where /when available to search please?
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Info here on Iron Mountain website:
http://www.ironmountain.co.uk/news/2013/impr08292013.asp
which links to the will index on HMCTS website:
https://www.gov.uk/probate-search
I found one of mine in about 20 seconds! Still need to send off for the will though
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Hi Irret,
i used that site to locate 3 Soldiers wills so far. Cost seems to be £6 per Will. Good luck searching everyone.
Sharren :D
Moderator comment: similar thread here: http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=659529.0
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Hi All
I could be wrong but I think they may only be From English regiments as I believe the wills from paybooks for Scottish soldiers are still held in Edinburgh.
I sent www.gov.uk an email asking about this earlier today and am waiting a reply I will post the reply here when I get one.
Yours Aye
BruceL
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Thank you so much, I haven't been lucky, I had all the information needed but it seems no will unless he has been miss transcribed, also this site shows only wills no mention of letters?
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Just found my Grandfathers will, should recerive it in ten days
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How exciting, I'm thrilled for you.
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The site also seems to contain the wills of dead soldiers from WW2, however I'm getting an error whenever I try to pay for any will, WW1 or WW2. Is anyone else having the same problem? The error message states: unknown order/1/r/
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Thanks for sharing just found my great uncle on there will be applying asap.
Ady
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I got the unknown order error too. And then when you go back to your cart everything has been removed and you have to search all over again. Hopefully it is just teething problems as I found three wills!
I may go and give it another try in another browser to see if it is a browser issue!
Milly
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No. Still getting the unknown order error :-\
Milly
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I found my g.uncle - his attestation papers are missing so presumably amongst the burnt ones, or perhaps they were hidden away all this time.
Like others, I keep getting the unknown order error. When you bring up the search page, there is a heading Beta: This is a new service - your feedback will help us to improve it. So I gave them the feedback about the unknown order error, but not heard anything yet. They're probably inundated with people complaining about the same thing.
Lizzie
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What no one has noticed is that this site is in Beta stage and as yet the will ordering is not working nor is the link to send them feedback. For those whose ancestors died in WWI and whose will doesnt appear here check the calendars that are on Ancestry as some seem to be indexed there and this site only contains those not previously published. The way this is going it looks to be that we are going to get another repeat of the 1901 census release
Rob
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Just found my Grandfathers will, should recerive it in ten days
Slaw - did you actually manage to order and pay for the will as the rest of us have not been able to get it to work an Rob is saying it is not up and running properly yet?
Milly
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Like others, I keep getting the unknown order error. When you bring up the search page, there is a heading Beta: This is a new service - your feedback will help us to improve it. So I gave them the feedback about the unknown order error, but not heard anything yet. They're probably inundated with people complaining about the same thing.
Lizzie
I sent them feedback too.... good feedback on how the search was working and a screen grab of the error. Presumably they will appreciate the feedback as they did ask for it :)
Milly
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Hi,
Thanks for the link ev.
I have just found my great uncle who died in France in 1915 have paid for his will
which I have been informed will be downloaded within 10 working days and will be available to view
for 31 days from the download date.
Midlad.
Same question for you Midlad.... did you actually manage to get the payment process to work?
Milly
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I could be wrong but I think they may only be From English regiments as I believe the wills from paybooks for Scottish soldiers are still held in Edinburgh.
I sent www.gov.uk an email asking about this earlier today and am waiting a reply I will post the reply here when I get one.
Scottish informal Wills(from paybooks , I think) are referenced here -
http://www.nas.gov.uk/onlineCatalogue/ (Click on the search button at the top)
Bruce , I think you are correct , I've looked for a few Scottish men with no results.
They are on the NAS site.
ev
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Hi,
I've just registered on the above GOV site and tried to download my Gt Grandfathers WW1 will but it doesn't seem to have worked. I add to the basket, proceed to checkout but then it's not asking me for payment details? Has anyone had the same problem?
Andi
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These wills are 'unprobated' so don't appear in the national calendars. They were written whilst on active service and kept by the military.
If your ancestor had taken the trouble to have written another will which was kept by the family or solicitor then those are the ones that appear in the calendars.
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It seems you are not alone in this;
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=659529.10
Topics merged
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Hello all,
Yes I got it to work no bother at all desperate to see what it says.
My great uncle was in the Scots Guards both his number and year of birth are correct.
I have a framed photo of him in his uniform which hung in my great grandmother's bedroom .
I also have letters he wrote to my grandfather in 1914 which I treasure I am thankful my grandparents were hoarders and never threw anything out.
Midlad
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I've found the will of my grandads uncle, a career soldier, who died in Burma in 1945. I'd love to know what information the will and associated letters (if any) contain. He never married but I'm surprised as a career soldier, and aged 36 at the time of his death, he never wrote a proper will.
I've also sent feedback thanking them for making such a fantastic resource available online but that i'm getting an error message at payment.
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Good news.. the payment function appears to be working now ;D
Milly
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Thanks Milly. I've just ordered the will for my g.uncle which will be available in 10 working days. He was orphaned by the time he was 8 and put in an orphanage by his eldest brother who went off to join the army. When he was 14 he left the orphanage and joined the same regiment as his brother. He stayed in the army until he was killed in France on 24 November 1917. I'm really interested to see who is named in his will. I'm assuming it was his older brother - unless he had a fiancée somewhere.
Lizzie
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No sign of my grandfather's will. He was a soldier in Egypt where he died in 1917. What proportion of total deaths are covered by these records? Is this the complete archive? Or were only some regiments included. He was only 23 years, just married and with one child. We have very few items of his, it would be lovely to have another memento.
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Originally, the estimate was 300,000 wills but this is a small number compared to how many men served in WW1.
At one time they were stored in damp conditions so some may not have survived the storage and digitisation process.
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In one of the articles I read about it yesterday someone said these wills represent about a quarter of British Empire soldiers who died in the war - although of the four names I searched for I found three listed.
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2404841/Online-archive-reveal-poignant-wills-personal-letters-230-000-WWI-soldiers.html#ixzz2dV8Dd7Ti
Milly
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Thanks for posting this information. Found my grandfather's half brother (who also happened to be the fiancé of one of my great aunts from my grandmother's side of the family) and successfully placed an order. I'm delighted with this ;D
sami
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Hello everybody ,
Delighted to say I have had an email to say the will was available .
Downloaded it and as I suspected he left everything to his mother .
Midlad
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Midlad - You managed to order your will before the site gave up - presumably too many people trying to pay for wills. I wonder how long it will take the rest of us to have the wills available that we've ordered. Hopefully, quite quickly.
By the way, is it possible to save the will to your computer? It seems to me that the £6 only pays to view the will.
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Hi LizzieW,
Yes I did it as soon as I heard about it -- .
Yes you can save it to your computer.
Hope you don't have to wait to long,
Midlad
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Thanks Midlad - One thing I know for sure, unlike your ancestor, my g.uncle won't be leaving anything to his mother as she died in 1901, his father dying 8 years earlier in 1893. I'm assuming he will have named his eldest brother - although he was in WW1 also, but fortunately lived to tell the tale. I'm interested in whether or not he mentions his other brother, my grandfather who told his family he was an orphan (true) but led them to believe he was all alone in the world when he had 5 siblings originally, one died young after their parents died, and the youngest is the one whose will I'm waiting for.
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Hi Lizzie,
He was only two years old when his father was killed in a mining accident.
my great granny was 7 months pregnant with my grandfather when the accident happened .
Two years to the day her father who registered my grandfather's birth was killed also in a mining
accident -- she was left aged 26 with six young children .
Midland
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I found two of my gg uncle's wills in NAS Edinburgh 5 years ago. They are very moving, even the lady who works at the archives was in tears. I hope now maybe I can find my other 3 gg uncles wills too.
Pettsy
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I had an e-mail at midnight to say the will I'd ordered was available. It wasn't a will but something called a Nuncupative or Missing Will, with a copy of a statement made by another soldier, 6 months after my g.uncle's death of what he'd been told by my g.uncle "while in actual Military Service" regarding where he would like his property and belongings to go if he was killed. It's quite sad really as the other soldier, serving in the same regiment has hand written what was said to him by my g.uncle whilst they were in a billet at Beautin. It seems he wanted everything to go to "my girl". His friend had the foresight to ask for a name and address which he copied down in his own pocket book. I'm going to try to find this young lady on the 1911 census and then see if she married sometime after 1917.
Lizzie
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My Grandfathers cousin , had said for all his effects to go to his Mother , back in Preston , it was written 15 July 1917, but he didn't get killed till Sept 23 1918,
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I believe from what my father told me that all recruits had to make a will on enlistment, and designate their next of kin.
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Hi, I have found a Will for my husband's Uncle WW1 but having completed the Registration details as requested, I'm still waiting for an E Mail from the site to activate the account. It appears that until I ( hopefully) receive the E Mail, I cannot purchase the Will.
Is this the stage at which others have been stuck?
Hope I'll get a reply today.
Barbara.
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Hi Barbara
I got the e-mail activation immediately. It was when we came to pay that we were unable to continue, but that is now working.
I'd try to register again if I were you, perhaps you didn't type your e-mail address correctly.
Good luck
Lizzie
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Roger - My g.uncle signed on when he was 14 in 1908 so I suppose at that time they didn't have to make a will. If there was a will made later on, it wasn't found so they had to take a statement from a fellow soldier. (A nuncupative or missing will).
All soldiers aren't listed - well at least so far - I have a 2nd cousin once removed who died in France on 12 June 1917 and I've even seen his grave but his name isn't on the list of wills.
Lizzie
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Hi Lizzie,
All sorted. Will ordered.
Another Rootschatter (jan57) in a different topic, suggested that I look in my Spam Box for the authorisation E Mail and sure enough - there it was.
I'm looking forward to getting the Will now.
Thanks
Barbara.
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Ordered and was able to download a will of an Uncle who died in WW11 within 48 hours, impressed by that
Mo
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Hi Molly, that's great,
Hope my order is as fast.
Barbara.
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Roger - My g.uncle signed on when he was 14 in 1908 so I suppose at that time they didn't have to make a will. If there was a will made later on, it wasn't found so they had to take a statement from a fellow soldier. (A nuncupative or missing will).
All soldiers aren't listed - well at least so far - I have a 2nd cousin once removed who died in France on 12 June 1917 and I've even seen his grave but his name isn't on the list of wills.
Lizzie
Remember Lizzie that 230000 wills have been released, the total British and Empire casualties were of the order of 1Million, so about 770000 to be accounted for. Also I would imagine that administration was pretty chaotic to say the least, no doubt many things didn't get done, and others were done twice.
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Firstly thanks to RC's who persevered and then let us know payment was working. ;D
Just to say I hit the site last night to try and progress my basket, having found them all again. It took 3 attempts backwards and forwards to get to make payment. It may be that demand is still out stripping their bandwidth or gremlins in the system.
I await the call to say they are available to view.