finding will probate

Hi,
I'm looking for will probate in the national archive online pdf lists from the 1950s for someone who definitely had a will but can't find it listed. What am I doing wrong? I've searched from year of death all the way up to the mid seventies.

Yyhhuuu

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Hi,
I'm looking for will probate in the national archive online pdf lists from the 1950s for someone who definitely had a will but can't find it listed. What am I doing wrong? I've searched from year of death all the way up to the mid seventies.

It might not be probated.

and then what? where do you find the Will from that time? The Estate of the Deceased was substantial. A Beneficary was never present for a reading of the Will and were only told of their inheritance by someone who was not the Executor.

Peregrinus

If the will wasn't admitted to probate it's very unlikely that you'll find it now. It won't ever have been filed or registered in any public office, and the family/next-of-kin/whoever who administered the estate informally will have had no reason to hang on to a will which they had decided not to have admitted to probate. The chances that it has survived, and can be found, sixty or seventy years later are slim. It might be mouldering in a suitcase full of obsolete documents in some family member's attic or shed, but odds are that the family member concerned doesn't know that it is.

How would a very substantial property inherited through that Will be sold on at a later date if the transfer of ownership was not referred to in a probated will? I was looking at date of death and date of entry for some of the wills and there were decades in the difference.

Peregrinus

Deleted User wrote: »

How would a very substantial property inherited through that Will be sold on at a later date if the transfer of ownership was not referred to in a probated will? I was looking at date of death and date of entry for some of the wills and there were decades in the difference.

Sure. If the estate includes land it would be difficult to administer it properly without having the will admitted to probate. But it might be possible if e.g. the deceased's land was held in joint names with his spouse and so passed to her directly, never forming part of the estate. Much depends on the exact facts.

We're not saying that it's likely that the will wasn't admitted to probate - just that that would be one explanation of why you're not finding it in the probate office records.

Is there any digitized version of the probates from the 1950s.
What I'm seeing in the PDFs appears to have been scanned in entries so keyword search doesn't work.
The Estate was large and divided up amongst various parties some of whom would not have had a close relationship to the deceased but rather to their spouse.

3DataModem

BTW OP, there is no such thing as a "reading of the will"

The executor has duties in relation to notifying beneficiaries., and generally does not have obligations to notify anyone else.

POBox19

Deleted User wrote: »

Hi,
I'm looking for will probate in the national archive online pdf lists from the 1950s for someone who definitely had a will but can't find it listed. What am I doing wrong? I've searched from year of death all the way up to the mid seventies.

It is tricky!
Would it be worth you while requesting the National Archive to dig up the document, it costs from €15 for a copy? If it is there they'll find it provided you give them enough to go on.

https://www.nationalarchives.ie/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Testamentary-copy-order-form.pdf

3DataModem

3DataModem wrote: »

BTW OP, there is no such thing as a "reading of the will"

The executor has duties in relation to notifying beneficiaries., and generally does not have obligations to notify anyone else.

The Executor does not appear to have fulfilled their fiduciary duty to the beneficiary in this case.
There is no record of probate granted in archive. Once probate granted it is a matter of public record.

Peregrinus

Deleted User wrote: »

The Executor does not appear to have fulfilled their fiduciary duty to the beneficiary in this case.

How do you know this, if you don't know what was in the will? Genuine question.

mickuhaha

Peregrinus wrote: »

How do you know this, if you don't know what was in the will? Genuine question.

If probate was extracted and there was a will. A copy would be in probate.

Peregrinus

Peregrinus wrote: »

How do you know this, if you don't know what was in the will? Genuine question.

The deceased was a barrister. The assumption is that with a high level of probability he had set his affairs in order before he died at an advanced age.

Peregrinus

Deleted User wrote: »

The deceased was a barrister. The assumption is that with a high level of probability he had set his affairs in order before he died at an advanced age.

But who is the beneficiary that you are speaking of? And who is the executor?

I have found the record I'm looking for by visiting the grave. Date engraved was a year earlier than written down. Now I have this I can apply for a copy of the will.
Thanks.