I thought I'd give a short seminar on researching wills in England. The following is from my experience and from Derek Harland, A BASIC COURSE IN GENEALOGY, Vol. 2, page 286 ff.

In the United States most wills are found under civil jurisdiction, usually in the Probate Court within a county. This is not true in England, as civil probate did not start there until 1858. Since the Court of Probate Act, 1857, all Wills, beginning in 1858, have been filed in the Principal Probate Registry, Somerset House, London, W.C.2.

Wills were made by individuals who were contemplating taking a long journey or a dangerous journey, or when an individual felt he or she were approaching death, or were sickly and there was little hope for recovery. An individual would gather together someone to write the will as it was dictated and there would usuallly be one or more witnesses, who could swear that they saw the TESTATOR make the will and that it was according to the TESTATOR'S wishes. If the TESTATOR was too sick to write but could otherwise make his/her wishes known, a NUNCUPATIVE WILL was recognized until 1837, when no NUNCUPATIVE will was valid unless made by any soldier or marine or seaman at sea. After the TESTATOR died, then the will would be PROBATED.

All of these early wills are found by searching ecclesiastical courts. The difficulties attached to the locating of the English probates lies in the fact that there were a ****** of Probate courts at which a Will could be probated and the problem is to list all the possible courts that would contain the required information. It is important to realize that the various ecclesiastical divisions of the country did not necessarily have the same area limits or boundaries as civil towns and counties. Starting with the smallest ecclesiastical division and working towards the largest, these divisions were:

PARISHES

An ecclesiastical parish is an area under the jurisdiction of a minister (clergyman) of the Established Church of England - the State Church. Such a minister may have the title of Rector or Vicar, and possibly other titles. In some distant past a certain ****** of these parishes were given the authority to administer its business without reference to the control of the higher ecclesiastical authorities, such as the deans, archdeacons and bishops. Such parishes were known as PECULIARS, and the ministers of these parishes had the right to probate the Will of a deceased individual who had property solely within the area of that PECULIAR PARISH. The Wills found in Great Yarmouth may fit into this division.

DEANERIES

The division of the Church next to the Parish is the Rural Deanery. The Deanery is an area comprising a ****** of parishes (often as many as twelve) under the jurisdiction of a Rural Dean, who is usually one of the parish ministers in charge also of one of the parishes comprising the Deanery.

A few of the Rural Deaneries had Probate Courts, where the Rural Dean, acting by commission, had the authority to grant probate, but only in those records affecting property that was in the area covered by that Deanery. If property was found in other areas, the right of Probate would be exercised in the Probate Court having the next highest authority, which are known as

ARCHDEACONRIES

This area of ecclesiastical probate jurisdiction comprised a ****** of Deaneries (with their parishes), and was headed by an Archdeacon who had authority over all the ministers in the care covered by that Archdeaconry, with the exception of the ministers of the Peculiar parishes. In some Dioceses, the bishops failed to appoint Archdeacons, assuming the office themselves, who had control over the

DIOCESES

Within a Diocese would be found one or more Archdeaconries with their Deaneries and Parishes over which the Bishop would have Jurisdiction. This court would generally be known as the Court of the Bishop of ____________, or the Episcopal Consistory Court of ____________. The next highest court is the

PROVINCE

Comprising a ****** of Dioceses (or Bishoprics as they are sometimes called), they come under the authority of an Archbishop. There are three such provinces as detailed:

1. The Province of Canterbury covering the dioceses that are situated in the midland and southern parts of England and the whole of Wales. The Province Court of the Archbishop of Canterbury is known as the PREROGATIVE COURT OF THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY, often known as the PREROGATIVE COURT OF CANTERBURY and shortened to P. C. C. This court is the highest in authorityin the whole of England and Wales.

2. The Province of York ..

3. The Province of Wales ..

In the Woolsey research of Norfolk, we have found wills in the following Probate Courts:

1. Prerogative Court of Canterbury (P. C. C.)
2. Archdeaconery Court of Norwich, Norfolk.
3. Archdeaconery Court of Great Yarmouth
4. Consistory Court of Norfolk
5. Consistory Court of Norwich

Each of the records for each of the above Courts need to be searched. Fortunately, the indexes to each of the above have been published (in various books and series) but it takes quite a while to check the index, then cross-reference the index to the years involved, and finally, to find the microfilm on which a particular will is found.

Most will can be found within 20 or 30 minutes of searching, but I have found volumes where there are no page ******s given, or the page ******s cannot be read, so sometimes I have had to make a page by page search to find a given will. Also, each volume of wills is supposed to have an index on the microfilm (but many do not), but I have always checked these volume indexes and have found three Woolsey names that were not on the published index lists. Sometimes one year can cover many volumes and hence many microfilm. The volume ****** (folio name) is usually given (but not always), so I have had to search more than one volume and microfilm to find a particular will.

The wills themselves can hold a treasury of family names and relationships, but many times, only the name of the Testator and his/her executors are named.

The Will of Agnes Wolsey names her mother "the widow Westgate", several of her brothers and sisters, and some of the children of her brothers and sisters.

The Will of Robert Wolsey states that "my father, etc." but does not name him.

The Will of William Wolsey does not name his wife, so she had probably died by the time he made his will, but he names eleven children, some with their spouses and he names a few grandchildren, so it is filled with family information, including eight pieces of property, named " ________ CLOSE", and I'm trying to find out more about a "CLOSE", an enclosed piece of property, next to a manor or house or barn, etc.

There are over 60 Woolsey wills found in the various probate courts in Norfolk, from 1380 to 1650. I am in the process of reading them now, with the help of professional researchers. So far, I have completed over twenty of the sixty, but it is slow, tedious going, but very interesting when one finds an exciting will, otherwise, sometimes very frustrating. It is also very expensive, but thanks to the generosity of Jeanine Olsen, her siblings and her mother, (of Canada), and several of you Woolsey researchers, I have been able to start this large, hard project. Thanks to you all.

Once I have found a will, I have spent from one or two hours to as many as ten or twelve hours on that one will, trying to "interpret" the old English writing. I then call in a "specialist" to check my work and help me with words and names I could not decipher. I notice that the "specialist" usually hangs up on the same words and names that I do, so we puzzle them out together.

Then I type up the will, in Word Perfect, and then I enter the family into the LDS PAF program. All American Woolseys I spell "Woolsey" and all English Wolseys I spell "Wolsey" so I can find them easily in the index. Any differences of spelling I note in the "notes" and also after the name, such as Andrew Wulcey I enter as Andrew Wolsey (Wulcey).

Having done this, I then check the LDS Library Card Catalog for any other records, such as Land, Baptisms, Marriages, Burials, Parish Registers, etc. by locality. Some registers do not start until the middle 1600's, so are too late for our families. Other, older registers, begin abt 1550's and most are not indexed and are difficult to read, but I read them name by name. If I find Wulcy, Wolsey, etc. I then will check and read each page three or four times to be sure I have found everything. This can take hours and hours of very close, eye-fatiguing work.

I have not found the connections I am hoping to find, but I have a long way to go. The LDS Family History Library does not have many Land Records from England, but there are records available, back in Norfolk. That could be research down the road a ways.