Next of Kin

The other day I found a notice in the Liverpool Daily Post from February 8, 1915. It was placed by John W. Knowles, solicitor of Widnes, Lancashire, looking for my great-grandmother, Martha Elizabeth Singleton (Tait) who was living in Montreal. 

I have no idea why they were looking for her as both her parents are long since dead. Perhaps one of her brothers died, I have not found death records for them yet. But.... in June of 1916 Martha is on a passenger list returning to Canada from England, which says she arrived there in 1915. So I presume they got in touch with her.

Lawyers put notices in newspapers when they were looking for heirs to estates, and I found this book from 1904 called...

"Index register to next of kin, heirs at law and cases of unclaimed money advertisements in Great Britain, the Colonies, India, America, France, Germany, Ireland, and all parts of the world."

Maybe you will find your ancestors mentioned within the pages of this book! 


Relevant link:

UK Unclaimed Estates List

Closet or Cloud, who gets your Stuff?

Today we will talk about a more modern ancestor - YOU !

One day you will be the Ancestor – are you prepared? When my bother learned he was dying he started putting all his affairs in order to make it easy for me, the Executor of his estate.  After making his arrangements, he took me around to meet his banker, his lawyer and the funeral director who would do the cremation and plant a tree in the local Provincial Park in his name. We went through all his papers, the photos and collections in his closet, what his few valuables were, and I had him make a list of things he wanted to go to certain of his friends.

In this technological age, you don’t only have to worry about the stuff in your closet, but also the stuff in your CLOUD!! Pass on your passwords!  I started with one simple password that I could remember, then sites started asking for more characters, then add Capitals, now they ask for a symbol – I have to have a file just to keep track of all my passwords!  Besides my photos, creative works, paper work etc, I also have all my Genealogy on my hard drive and online. I don’t want all my hard work to go to waste, so I have to plan now what is going to happen to it. If you have your family tree online, at least once a year, more often preferably, back it up by downloading the gedcom file to store in a safe place.

There are many types of wills, from free to virtual. Some provinces, states and countries recognize different kinds of wills so it’s a good idea to check your area. A Holographic Will is a will that is completely handwritten and does not need witnesses, or a lawyer or notary. A simple, or Statutory Will is one you can buy in a stationary store and fill in the blanks, and must be witnessed.  Now, with new and improved technology you can make a will online.

Imagine... you can make a virtual will for your virtual stuff!  Whodathunk???

  

Relevant Links:

How to Write a Holographic Will (and other types of wills)

Online Wills – UK

Test of Online Wills - US

US Online Wills by State (check your state laws)

The Digital Beyond (organizing your digital assets)

What are your digital assets worth?

Cutting Probate Costs – Globe and Mail

Estate Law Canada

Wills Online by Yahoo Canada


 

  

Heir to the Goods and Chattles

Not everyone wrote a will, and not every will has to be probated. That said, I have found probate records for a value of effects as little as ₤48 that a spinster left her brother and as much as ₤13,670 that a Master Tailor left his wife. In Canada, Australia and the US, probate records are under the jurisdiction of the province or state. Canada and US records for aboriginals are federal. In southern England and Wales wills 1384- 1858 were a church matter and registered, mostly, with the Prerogative Court of Canterbury.


Unfortunately many offices in Devon that held wills were blitzed in WWII.  Fortunately for me, my ancestor had enough of an estate that a “death duty” was owed and these records, called Inland Revenue Wills, had been kept in London and those from 1812 to 1857 survived, as well as some in Cornwall and Somerset.

My grandmother, being the eldest child, was the executor with her mother of her father’s will, and bless her heart she never threw anything out. What I have is a Declaration of Transmission of Estate for a non-probated will in Montreal, which named the properties he owned. A Will or a Probate Record can name children, property, and what burying arrangements should be made. Sometimes it is just a line saying all their effects go to someone.   

 

Relevant Links:

Will sand Probate in Canada – LAC

Manitoba Probate Indexes 1870-1983

Wills and Probate – UK

Court of Surrey Spage Register (Register of Wills named after first person registered)

Oxfordshire Transcriptions of Wills

Devonshire UK wills – from 1546- and genealogy of the most ancient gentle houses

The Devon Wills Project – Indexes

Somerset UK – Wills

Cornwall Probate Records Available

Medieval source for Probate records

Wills and Testaments – Scotland

Edinburgh Register of Testaments 1514-1600

Edinburgh Register of Testaments 1601-1700

Edinburgh Register of Testaments 1701-1800

Register of testaments Inverness 1564-1800

Glasgow Register of testaments 1547-1800

Will Calendars of Northern Ireland

Wills and Testaments – National Archives of Ireland

A Treatise of Testaments and Last Wills Dublin 1793 (How to write a will)

Locating Australian Wills

New Zealand Probate Records at Family Search:

George Budke's 1921 Abstracts of Rockland County NY Wills

USA Will and Probate Records by State at Family Search

Perogative of Irish Wills  1536-1897

Court of Surry Spage Register (Register of Wills named after person registered 

Oxfordshire Transcriptions of Wills

Devonshire UK Wills - from 1546 and genealogy of most ancient and gentle houses

The Commissariot record - Register of Testaments - Scotland

Mortifications (wills) under the charge of Aberdeen (back to 1400's) - 1849

Wills and Testamentary Documents of Binders, R=Printers and Stationers of Oxford

The Municipal records of Bath; 1189 to 1604 (1885)

Victoria, Australia; Wills can be found in Court Records database

Wills and Administrations for Devon and Cornwall 1540-1799