Wills Index

Forest of Dean Wills & Administrations Index 1858-1941

General Information

The Index is now completed and consists of 8,416 Wills & Administrations of Forest of Dean people. The information in this database has been taken from the annual Will books held at Gloucestershire Archives. These Will books contain handwritten copies of wills granted probate at Gloucester between 1858 and 1941.

Beneficiaries and Others

While wills always provide information about the deceased and his or her heirs, many of these will also mention other family members by name and often by relationship. You may find siblings, children, illegitimate children, nephews or nieces whose existence you never suspected.

As the names of other people mentioned in the Wills is of great value to the family history researchers we are also in the process of extracting the names of these people and putting them in an additional Index database and referencing them to the Will they appear in.

Extracting the names of the other people that are mentioned in the Wills is of course going to take much longer to complete. Only a small proportion of the Wills have so far had the names of the 'Beneficiaries and Others' extracted and put into the database, as more names are extracted the database will be updated.

Obtaining copies of Wills (proved from 1858 onwards)

Once you know when and where a grant issued, you can have copies of the grant and the Will (if any). You may order copies at First Avenue House or any District Probate Registry and some Sub-Registries. You should state the full name of the deceased, the date of the grant, the Registry where it issued, what copies you want and pay the appropriate fee.

You may order copies by post or by attending any Registry. Telephone or email orders cannot be accepted.

Further Details: Ministry of Justice Probate service

A Special thanks to David Drinkwater together with Glenn & Lynne Robertson for creating these Indexes

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