Ordering a Will

[ClareBear]

Hello
I am hoping someone can me some tips to ordering a will from the updated probatesearch.service.gov.uk

I am finding it almost impossible to find a will and order it, since the updates were made. Has anyone worked out how it works - I put in all the details for the person and the dates it asks for, but on the results page, I never get the image showing the will in the index, even after looking through all the pages it brings up. So I stuck on how to actually place an order.

Any tips or help would be very much appreciated.

Many thanks
Clare

[Jimbo50]

I just had a look, and the image pages appear to be in alphabetical order. Not so. If you go to next page it looks alphabetical , but it isn't consecutive. It can be from anywhere. Jumps from Irish to English, page 77 to 184 etc. It is very confusing because next page isn't the following page in the record. What on earth have they done ? ...And no refund if it's wrong !

[Mick Loney]

Word of warning. On the old site, when you found what you were looking for, make sure the entry says ‘Will’ and not ‘Admon’ (letters of administration). They didn’t make it clear in their guide and I wasted my money buying a copy of the letter, instead of the will I was expecting

[Sheila]

I have had problems searching and finding wills since the new system was introduced. I contacted the HMCTS Wills Helpdesk. Their suggestion was to narrow down a search by putting speech marks at the beginning of the last name and the end of the first name.
eg. "smith
john"
They said "this will narrow down any instances of when John Smith is together in the name and will significantly reduce the amount of pages that you will have to go through in order to find your details on our system".

I have tried this and it has helped with some searches but sometimes there are still many pages to plough through.

[Brunes08]

I have been able to purchase wills from County Record Offices rather than the Govt. site. Of course I suppose it it depends on when Probate was granted. For example, I have one very long and detailed will of my gt gt grandfather that only cost me £5.00 for the photocopying and p&p. Another Record office only charged £2.00. It is worth hunting around.

[AdrianBruce]

I have been able to purchase wills from County Record Offices rather than the Govt. site. Of course I suppose it it depends on when Probate was granted. ...

That is actually a good point. Maybe... Chester Record Office have copies of wills processed via Chester after 1858 - i.e. wills processed by the civil courts. I've never quite understood how they came to be at Chester RO - my best guess is that these are records from the Chester Probate Registry - the original wills were dispatched to the central office, with a copy retained by Chester Registry, and the documents from the Chester Registry were eventually sent to the local RO.

I have no idea if anywhere else did this....

[Thunder]

Hello
I am hoping someone can me some tips to ordering a will from the updated probatesearch.service.gov.uk

I am finding it almost impossible to find a will and order it, since the updates were made. Has anyone worked out how it works - I put in all the details for the person and the dates it asks for, but on the results page, I never get the image showing the will in the index, even after looking through all the pages it brings up. So I stuck on how to actually place an order.

Any tips or help would be very much appreciated.

Many thanks
Clare

Sometimes the wills/probate can be a few years after the event. It sounds like this new index is not that great!. I am glad I got most of what I wanted before this new index came into being.

[ClareBear]

Hi everyone
Thanks for all your comments, sounds like we have all had the same issues and problems. My local Records office doesn't have a copy of this which is a shame.
I will keep trying, and will try the "speech marks" round the name as suggested.

Thanks again
ClareBear