About British Record Society Probate Collection 1320-1858

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The British Record Society (BRS) probate indexes show the names and dates of several million wills and other probate documents. Spanning more than five centuries across Britain, the indexes show you where to go to find the original documents.

Our BRS Probate Collection provides exclusive online access to BRS indexes and other probate collections* via a Google-like search. When you view search results as highlighted snippets, you can click to view images of the original indexes to find all the information you need to contact the relevant record offices to be able to examine the original documents.

Over time, as the BRS volumes are indexed individually on NWI, you will be able to order hard copies of the wills online, and eventually be able to access the documents themselves.

* The BRS Probate Collection also includes complementary collections, specifically: Matthews volumes covering the Commonwealth period after the English Civil War, Morrison volumes covering missing gaps from the BRS collection in the 17th Century and the Yorkshire Archaeological Society probate index

About the British Record Society
The British Record Society (BRS) was founded in 1889 to compile, edit and publish indexes, calendars and transcripts of historical records in public or private custody throughout Great Britain. For many years it has concentrated on producing indexes to English probate records to facilitate the study of English history and genealogy.

The introduction to each volume is reproduced here as it was created at the time of its original publication. Archives have undergone a number of reorganisations since the end of the second world war. Thus all references to the Public Record Office should now read The National Archives (London). Somerset House is no longer a record repository and all documents previously deposited there have now been transferred to the appropriate county record office or archives.


Probate index volumes currently available in this collection

See also:	Help on Searching - BRS Probate Collection
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