Herefordshire Probate Records

England &gt; Herefordshire

For an explanation of probate records in England, click here.

Court Jurisdictions
Before 1858, every town and parish in Herefordshire was under the probate jurisdiction of a primary ecclesiastical court and one or more secondary ecclesiastical courts.

Here is a list of Herefordshire places beginning with the letter A and the pre-1858 courts that had probate jurisdiction over them. Search the courts in the order given. Search indexes first. For indexes, click on a court name or see the indexes listed below.

For other places, click on a letter link: B, C-E, F-I, K-L, M-P, R-T, U-Z.

Probate Indexes Online
Before looking for a will, you should search an index.

http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/HEF/ProbateRecords/about.html

Abstracts of Herefordshire Probate Records

http://homepages.which.net/~eleanor.harris/index4.htm

Indexes to the earliest Wills have been created and some published, but, rather surprisingly, the period of time most useful to the ordinary family historian, 1700-1858, has never been indexed - until now! I have created an index to the 42,000 Wills and Administrations and this is a private index that is not available from any other source. It has not yet been published, and will probably not be published for some time http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/HEF/ProbateRecords/about.html

Herefordshire Wills Collections This page provides details of compilations of Herefordshire Probate Records (Wills), either partial abstracts or indexes, online and in printed collections. The following are listed in reverse order of their creation, or my discovery.

Post-1857 Probate Records
Beginning in 1858, the government took over the settlement of estates and all wills are now probated through the Principal Probate Registry system. The system consists of 11 district registry offices and 18 sub-district registries, located throughout England and Wales, and the principal registry office located in London. The records are available through the office of Her Majesty's Courts Service. To learn more, go to the HMCS website.

A country-wide surname index to the records is available, so it is much easier to look for post-1857 wills. The indexes for 1858-1957 and the records for 1858-1925 are available on microfilm at the Family History Library.