What Happened To Your Family Fortune?
What Happened To Your Family Fortune? Historic British Records Distinguish The Prosperous From The Paupers
For the first time, Ancestry.com.au is allowing free access for all Kiwis with UK heritage to search for forgotten family fortunes.
• Newly launched London,
England, Wills and Probate, 1525-1858 details four centuries
of inheritances of London’s wealthiest
residents
•
• Open database
includes free access, from 1-8 July, to the populate England
and Wales National Probate Calendar, 1861-1941 and England,
Andrews Newspaper Index Cards,
1790-1976
•
July 1, 2011 – Today, New Zealand’s leading family history website, Ancestry.com.au, has announced the launch of London, England, Wills and Probate, 1525-1858, historical records which detail some of the largest inheritances passed down in the early years of the city’s documented history.
With an estimated 80 percent of New
Zealanders having UK heritage, it is likely that those able
to locate an ancestor in the collection may be able to claim
a connection to either royalty, the very wealthy or landed
gentry, as the records date from the 15th century, when
wills were reserved for members of the upper echelons of
society.
Released in partnership with the London
Metropolitan Archives, London, England, Wills and
Probate, 1525 – 1858 contains more than 117,000
records. Many exciting findings about our family
fortunes can be discovered, as anyone with an ancestor in
this collection will be able to delve further into that
person’s life, learning more about their social standing,
their worldly possessions and to whom they were bequeathed.
The records contained in the collection paint
a vibrant picture of the lives of millions of London and
Surrey residents living during these years, and fall into
three main categories:
• Wills – giving
instructions on the disposition of a person's estate and
goods after death. Details often include names, dates,
property, burial information, and indications of family and
other relationships amongst the names of beneficiaries,
executors and
witnesses.
•
•
• Inventories –
listing the deceased possessions, inventories include
details of goods and ‘chattel’ such as furniture,
household items and heirlooms, giving a unique insight into
an ancestor's wealth or
lifestyle.
•
•
• Letters of
Administration – granting someone the right to
administer a deceased person's estate in the event that no
will had been created. Often includes additional information
on the next of kin.
•
•
The records are
searchable by a combination of name, date, parish and county
and can even be browsed using an ancestors’ last name and
probate year.
The popular England and Wales
National Probate Calendar, 1861-1941 is being made
available and is free to search online for the first time
from 1 July to 8 July 2011. The index includes information
on more than six million wills proven across the 19th
and 20th centuries.
Included in the index are numerous famous names, including:
• George
Marsden Waterhouse – (7th Premier of NZ) died in 1906
and left £61,000 (NZ$12.2 million today) to his wife and
Percy Leslie Waterhouse, but there was no mention of his two
adopted daughters. Whereas Henry Sewell (1st Premier) died
in 1879, leaving a personal estate of less than £450
(NZ$90,000 today).
• Ernest Rutherford – When
Rutherford, the father of nuclear physics, died in 1937, he
left an estate of over £7,000 (NZ$1.4 million today). This
went to Ralph Howard Fowler (Physicist and Son-in-law),
Henry Thirkill (one time collaborator in Rutherford student
days) and Walter Maclaren Francis
(Solicitor).
•
•
• Charles Darwin –
the acclaimed naturalist Charles Robert Darwin is listed
as having left a personal estate worth £146,911 (around
NZ$29.3 million today) when he died in
1882.
•
•
• Charles Dickens – the
famous Victorian author Charles Dickens died leaving
‘effects under £80,000’ (around NZ$16 million today)
when he died in 1870.
•
•
• Karl Marx
– fittingly, the anti-capitalist died poor in 1883,
leaving just £250 (NZ$47,800 today) to his youngest
daughter Eleanor.
•
Another tremendous resource for those seeking to investigate potential inheritances is The Andrews Collection. This unique card index compiled in England from the 1790s until about 1970 features a collection of notices from newspapers and various official sources, such as the London Gazette. Approximately 250,000 cards include announcements of births, marriages, obituaries, and deaths abroad; also notices of wills, unclaimed estates, and filings under the Colonial Probates Act of 1892 (which recognised probates from courts in British possession).
Brad Argent, Content Director
for Ancestry.com.au Australia and New Zealand, comments:
“Given that such a large number of Australians can
trace their roots back to Britain, this is the perfect time
to take advantage of these incredible resources to discover
the details of your true British heritage – and perhaps
come across your own family treasure in the
process.
“It’s true that we often focus on our convict past, but this collection points to new discoveries that could reveal connections to substantial wealth and social standing”.
To find out more
about your family’s heritage, please visit www.ancestry.com.au
ENDS