Family will, where did the money go?

mrsyardbroom

UPDATE: I need to update the post as people keep pointing me to the Government probate website. I'm looking for a will if there is one. I have the probate information from Ancestry and the Government Probate site but that only tells me the basic information of date of birth and date of death and how much money was left.

The fees of £1.50 and £7 only relate to post 1996 documents. Trust me, I have exhausted all possibilities on the government website.

I'm trying to clear up a family mystery. My father had an elderly great aunt who married late in life and didn't have any children. Her husband died before her. My father said she'd told him once that she was leaving everything to him. My family knew that she lived in Worthing but they lost touch with her. We never heard any more about her. I'm now doing some family research. I have searched the Ancestry records for any trace of her and Apparently she died in 1986, just three months after my father died. Her parents and all of her siblings had died before her. I found the record of the probate for her estate in the  England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1966, 1973-1995 and that's where the trail comes to an end. Is there any way I can find a will? I'm assuming she did make a will as her estate was in excess of £50,000. I did look on the will search website but they charge a lot of money to do any searches. It would be great if someone could help.

fordyms

https://probatesearch.service.gov.uk/  £7 to download the documents if they are there.

p00hsticks

fordyms said:

https://probatesearch.service.gov.uk/  £7 to download the documents if they are there.

I thought it was £1.50 ?
Search probate records for documents and wills (England and Wales) - GOV.UK
OP - if there was a will then it would have been sent to the Probate Office as part of the application and you should be able to download an electronic  copy for a small payment. 

EDIT: I've just looked at that page and it seems to have altered since I was last on it - it used to show the grant of probate and will as two separate items to purchase but now I can only see a single 'Probate' item for a case where I know there was a will previously made public and available. 

elsien

I wouldn’t be assuming that she made a will. Some people talk about it, but never get round to it. Perhaps she didn’t have anything worth leaving by the end of her life - assets gone towards care costs, for example. 

mrsyardbroom

I've done searches on the government pages but the only result was the listing in the probate calendar. I don't want to pay large sums to find a will as I won't be a beneficiary and it would just mean forking out a lot of money to satisfy my curiosity. The aunty may not have left a will.

elsien said:

I wouldn’t be assuming that she made a will. Some people talk about it, but never get round to it. Perhaps she didn’t have anything worth leaving by the end of her life - assets gone towards care costs, for example. 

It did say on the calendar of wills that she left over £50,000. I don't know who cared for her, but I imagine she was quite wealthy. The wording in the calendar says,
"Died 4th July 1986 Probate Brighton 13th October £50,825." The address is a private address and not a care home.

Grumpelstiltskin

p00hsticks said:

fordyms said:

https://probatesearch.service.gov.uk/  £7 to download the documents if they are there.

I thought it was £1.50 ?
Search probate records for documents and wills (England and Wales) - GOV.UK
OP - if there was a will then it would have been sent to the Probate Office as part of the application and you should be able to download an electronic  copy for a small payment. 

EDIT: I've just looked at that page and it seems to have altered since I was last on it - it used to show the grant of probate and will as two separate items to purchase but now I can only see a single 'Probate' item for a case where I know there was a will previously made public and available. 

£7 a lot of money?

Keep_pedalling

As in fordym’s post above you can download the probate records for £7 (fee went up from £1.50’last year) and if there was a will you will get that as well. 

mrsyardbroom

Grumpelstiltskin said:

p00hsticks said:

fordyms said:

https://probatesearch.service.gov.uk/  £7 to download the documents if they are there.

I thought it was £1.50 ?
Search probate records for documents and wills (England and Wales) - GOV.UK
OP - if there was a will then it would have been sent to the Probate Office as part of the application and you should be able to download an electronic  copy for a small payment. 

EDIT: I've just looked at that page and it seems to have altered since I was last on it - it used to show the grant of probate and will as two separate items to purchase but now I can only see a single 'Probate' item for a case where I know there was a will previously made public and available. 

£7 a lot of money?

There is no information about a will on the probate pages and the only record I can find is the one in the calendar of wills and probate. It's £1.50 if the probate records come up, which these don't.

mrsyardbroom

Keep_pedalling said:

As in fordym’s post above you can download the probate records for £7 (fee went up from £1.50’last year) and if there was a will you will get that as well. 

Only if you can find the record which I can't. It's only listed in the calendar of probate and wills and that's as far as it goes. I've tried ordering probate records but it comes up with zero records to download.

mrsyardbroom

Grumpelstiltskin said:

p00hsticks said:

fordyms said:

https://probatesearch.service.gov.uk/  £7 to download the documents if they are there.

I thought it was £1.50 ?
Search probate records for documents and wills (England and Wales) - GOV.UK
OP - if there was a will then it would have been sent to the Probate Office as part of the application and you should be able to download an electronic  copy for a small payment. 

EDIT: I've just looked at that page and it seems to have altered since I was last on it - it used to show the grant of probate and will as two separate items to purchase but now I can only see a single 'Probate' item for a case where I know there was a will previously made public and available. 

£7 a lot of money?

I keep trying to explain to everyone, the only record I can find is the one in the calendar of wills and probate records. If I search the government website there is no probate record to download, otherwise I would have done it. This is what it comes up with.

mrsyardbroom

I can't download a will or detailed probate record because the probate was granted before 1996.

When the documents were issued after 1st January 1996 they will show in the Digital Search Results, otherwise there is just a brief entry shown as an image.