Interesting release this one if you have a spare pound or two. It's still way cheaper than BMD certs in Australia & one may learn a lot more from these wills etc. Probate continues on from already available 1858-1966, 1966 - present + Soldiers wills. http:// genealogyalacarte.ca/?p=6971 or go straight to; https://www. gov.uk/wills-probate-inheritance/searching-for-probate-records Scotland & Ireland have a different search procedure to English. edit, broke link just in case (there's lot's of stuff on first page.)
Do I really want to know where the money went when my Father 'wrote me [and the rest of our family] out of his Will'? Don't care!
It's much easier than the old system, where you had to print off forms, find a stamp and then wait a month to hear back after posting. I ordered a couple about a fortnight ago and they came through on Christmas Eve. Much better.
But you need to know the year of death to search and then trawl through the images for that year, not bad if you are searching for an uncommon name but can be quite a few pages for a Smith. It's fine if you only want the probate details but if you want the will they still have to find the relevant one, which they say may take a couple of weeks, so it's not a lot quicker than the old system and more expensive. The most useful thing is that the more recent wills are available to search.
The British Government launched the website on 12th December (see here), so why this is making the news now - both in the newspapers and on television, I have no idea... However, at the top of the search page, there is a notice that states that it is a beta site and that feedback will help to improve it. I agree and so I made the following suggestion on Friday 12th December: Although there is the advanced search facility for wills dated 1996 to present, there does not seem to be such a facility for 1858 to 1996. This makes searching exceedingly log-winded, especially if the name is a common one such as SMITH or JONES. I received a reply on the next working day, Monday 15th December, so not a bad response time! Thank you for feedback regarding the search function for the 1858-1996 section of the website. Your suggestions have been put to our developers for consideration. I just hope that they act upon the suggestion as well as consider it...
I revisited F B where I saw the post, evidently just a combination of the last weeks news items. Good that they read their messages & deign to reply. Your pardon for seemingly ignoring your first post Jan, I did see it & forgot.
I thought exactly the same when they had this big bit on the news about the wills - and well done Jan for making the suggestion about the search facility. It just goes to show that it is worth taking the trouble to put forward suggestions - something I have been put off doing in the past as I have had little response from other people who have asked for comments or suggestions. Ann
