Genealogy Chat

Hello
There is a record on the welshdocuments website of the wills from the county of Montgomeryshire for 1720 - 1787 being held at Somerset House many years ago. They are no longer there, and so far we have been unable to trace where they were transferred to - we have tried Kew, The Borthwick at York, and the National Library of Wales without success. There is no sign of them on the National Archives website.
They may have been lost or destroyed, but hopefully not, and I wondered if anybody out there knew what had happened to them.
Many thanks
Paul Kettlewell

Checked 'Probate Jurisdictions: Where to look for Wills' Jeremy Gibson and Else Churchill.

Montgomeryshire was mainly in St.Asaph.
Consistory Court of St Asaph wills, admons, inventories for the periods 1700-1749 and 1750-1858 are at the National Library of Wales :-S

The catalogue does seem to agree!
http://www.archiveswales.org.uk/anw/get_collection.php?coll_id=77933

'Where to look for wills' does say that seven southern parishes came under the Consistory Court of Bangor, two parishes in the Archdeanery of Brecon (diocese of St David's) and nine parishes or parts of parishes in the episcopal consistory of Hereford. Those records are held elsewhere.

Hope you find them.

Chris

Edited to add author names

A lot of the wills at the National Library of Wales are now available online, but not for St Asaph pre 1660

For coverage:

http://www.llgc.org.uk/?id=487

To search online index:

http://cat.llgc.org.uk/cgi-bin/gw/chameleon?skin=profeb&lng=en

C/P from Ancestry



Most of our probate collections are indexes – essential aids to help you track down the full records. The largest of these is the National Probate Calendar, which is the single most important resource for tracking wills and probate records after 1858. After you’ve found an ancestor in the Calendar, it’s far easier to order a copy of their documents from the Principal Probate Registry.


Probate records that pre-date 1858 are scattered all over the country, often in local record offices or private archives. Our collections reflect this, as we have indexes from a variety of places and sources. Most of these indexes contain references, which will help you track down the original documents.

Probate records are court documents created by the distribution of a person’s estate after they die. The most important of these is usually a will, which lists the deceased’s property and outlines who it has been left to. These records offer a rare view into your ancestors’ daily lives.


The value of the estate suggests whether they lived in luxury or squalor. The possessions themselves offer clues about hobbies and interests. And the other family members mentioned often provide completely new avenues to research.

Many thanks for your replies and suggestions.
I have tried the National Library of Wales and the archives at Powys, but if as you suggest they came under St Asaph or Bangor, then they may be in the archives of a different county - will keep searching
Paul