Friday 6th November - GENEALOGICAL GOLDMINES 

Researching English and Welsh Probate Records

Helen Smith. 

Australian born, Helen is a speaker, researcher and author who has been researching family history since 1986 in Australia, England, Ireland and Wales with forays into other areas of the world chasing after mobile family members. Her father was born in England and her mother was a fifh generation Australian.

She has regularly spoken since 1992 in every state and territory in Australia and internationally in New Zealand, Canada, USA and England at such conferences as RootsTech, Federation of Genealogical Societies Conference, Virtual Genealogical Association Conference, Who Do You Think You Are! Live and aboard 17 Unlock the Past cruises. She is a regular presenter for LegacyFamiyTree Webinars.

This presentation explains the probate process from the medieval period through the twentieth century, including the transition from ecclesiastical courts to the national probate system in 1858.

Probate records are among the most valuable genealogical sources available for England and Wales. Far more than simple lists of possessions, wills and administrations can identify multiple generations of a family, reveal hidden relationships, document occupations and property, and illuminate the social document occupations and property, and illuminate the social and economic world of an ancestor.

Participants will learn the differences between wills, administrations, inventories, and probate calendars, where records are held, and how to locate them online and in archives.