Seeking specific collection of wills from medieval Norfolk - microfilm
Hello!
Many years ago, the Utah Genealogical Society imaged will registers from the Archdeaconry of Norwich and preserved them on microfilm. There are copies in the Norfolk Record Office in the UK but they are of a lower quality than the originals, or so I am told.
I would be willing to travel to Utah (quite a distance) to view these in the library but I cannot get through to ask if the originals exist. I've combed through the probate records in the catalogue but unfortunately cannot find sufficient information to confirm if what I am looking at are the same records I seek. The specific wills I need for my research date from around 1380 to 1550 or so, and almost everything I've found is much, much later than this or does not have sufficient detail in the catalogue entry to confirm to me that I would find what I am seeking. If anyone could help me out by pointing me to the right entry, or where to find the info on here, I'd be very appreciative.
Answers
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I did a quick keyword search in the online catalog for Norfolk England Probate. One of the top results was
https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/291384 covering Wills and administrations, 1459-1857. According to the catalog, the images for the earlier years, up to about 1540, are available online, from home, no restrictions. Later ones can be viewed at your local Affiliate Library or FamilySearch Center.
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Áine above.
gives a number of different record sets, of which there are a few of the period required, including the one mentioned byThis was a result of clicking on England, Norfolk - Probate records (from https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/625392)
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From a different angle, FindMyPast has a collection "Norfolk Wills & Probate". This only has index entries, but those indexes have a URL that drops you right on the relevant item in the Norfolk Record Office catalogue - for instance
Reference code NCC will register Hubert 88
Title Albard, Benedict, of Woodbridge, Suffolk
Date(s) - 1480 (creation)Level of description Item
Name of creator Diocese of Norwich, Consistory Court; 11th century-; ecclesiastical court; Norwich, Norfolk
(11th century-)
Repository Norfolk Record Office
Scope and content Grant of Administration.If you can get access to FMP, it may be that the search mechanism is more helpful than that on the Norfolk Record Office website.
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Following up on the responses above, there seems to be a plethora of stuff but URL https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/278818 is described as "Probate records for the Episcopal Consistory Court, Archdeaconry of Norwich, 1370-1858" - which is the literal match to the original question.
That includes calendars, registered copy wills, original wills, etc, etc. (You may already know the difference between registered copy wills and original wills but if not, the original wills are the actual originals, signed (perhaps) by the testator, while registered copy wills are made contemporary with the probate process and contain the "official" copy - they are made obvious by the fact that two or more wills appear on one page). That URL contains mostly registered copies but there are occasional originals - seemingly where the registered copy volumes have been lost??? That must imply something…
There are (as you may already know) a number of possibly relevant catalog entries - https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/625447 is for "Probate records and marriage licence bonds, 1291-1944" from the Dean and Chapter of Norwich's Peculiar Court, rather than the Consistory Court of the Archdeaconry - just to confuse the possibilities.
So far as I can see, those two URLs that I mention have images available online (and hopefully others do as well), so you can batter you head over the arrangement and contents without going to Salt Lake City.
Good luck - I think you might need it, trying to understand what makes up what…
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@Mikkaela3 did the suggestions above answer your question?
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I'm sure @Mikkel Eriksen has probably got other issues to attend to, causing the lack of response. However, like @Adrian Bruce1 I have often spent I good deal of time in looking into posters' queries and find it very disappointing when (sometimes after several months have elapsed) there is not even an acknowledgment that my detailed responses have even been read by the OPs.
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Following on from @Paul W's last comment… I have seen in other systems, people apologise for not responding to answers on their queries because "the system never told me that there was an answer". And I usually have a distinct suspicion that the system doesn't actually give those types of notifications.
Does anyone know if the Community automatically notifies a poster of responses? I get plenty of notifications via mail from this Community but I "always" Bookmark threads I've created or posted in, so I don't know whether it's because I've bookmarked them or because the system will tell me anyway.
I know that there are notification settings for the community but I've long since lost track of what the defaults are - so I wonder if non-responders expect notifications but aren't getting them?
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The @mention notification is a setting that is turned on when you first join FamilySearch Community. However, the notification for New answers on my question is not automatically turned on when you first join Community.
So, users only receive a response when an @mention (poster's name) is included in the response. None of the above answers used the @mention in their responses. That was why I @mentioned the user's name when I responded. If she is attending to other matters as @Paul W mentioned above, when she signs back into the Community she will see a number in the read circle next to the envelope icon in the upper right to alert her of any notifications. These notifications can be changed in the notifications settings. Click on the Bell icon and then click the notifications filter icon in the pop-up window to get to your notification settings.
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I have email notifications turned off. My email would have exploded long before now if I had it turned on for the Community.
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