Marion,
You discuss the introduction of wills as legalizing the process. Wills have been around for a very long time and it’s perhaps worth mentioning that your ancestors may well have had wills that detailed the various inheritances you suspect just went through perhaps on the nod. That there’s no entry on the PRONI wills site doesn’t mean they didn't make a will. A little about probate law in Britain and Ireland. There’s no requirement to register a will anywhere and not all wills require probate, even today. Probate is required if inheritance tax is due (used to be called estate duty). It is also often required where the person has significant sums of money in investments and bank accounts, because the financial institutions usually won’t release the money without it. But in the past lots of wills didn’t require probate, especially if the assets were moveable or in joint names. PRONI will only have a will or administration file if probate was required. Let’s say you were a farmer in Rabstown in the mid 1800s. You have a wife, a son and daughter living with you, 2 sons in America, and your brother who lives nearby. You make your will. It specifies: Your wife gets a life interest in the farm After her death your son is to inherit it Your daughter is to get £2 as are your 2 sons in America Your brother is to get your sword from the battle of Waterloo. The residue goes to your son. You appoint your son as executor. When you die, there’s a farm worth £100 with some cows, feed etc, and a tin with £25 above the mantle piece. No inheritance tax/estate duty is due. Your son goes to the tin above the mantelpiece and gives £2 to his sister and sends 2 x £2 to his brothers in America. He hands the sword to his uncle. Job done. The will then gets put in a box and forgotten about till someone throws it out 10 years later. No copy ever goes to PRONI. A second point about wills is that you should not just search the PRONI site but also the Principal Probate Registry in Dublin. http://www.willcalendars.nationalarchives.ie/search/cwa/home.jsp When someone died and probate was needed, they had a choice of where to apply. In what is now Northern Ireland there were 3 regional probate offices ie Londonderry, Armagh & Belfast, but there were others scattered around Ireland eg in Cork and Dublin. The majority of cases were dealt with by the nearest office to where the deceased lived but some used Dublin. Perhaps because the family had a lawyer there, or maybe because it was easier to get to from where the executor lived. I can’t really say for certain. So a small percentage of probate cases for Northern Ireland are in the Dublin archives, and not in PRONI. Particularly for Fermanagh and parts of Co Down but also Tyrone. There are 17,732 probate files for Co. Tyrone in the Dublin records (1858 – 1921) including 10 McCays. Always a good idea to check them. (You’ll find some are duplicates with the papers being in PRONI too, but many are only in Dublin). Hope this helps. Elwyn _______________________________________________ CoTyroneList Mailing List Mailing List Email Address: CoTyroneList@cotyroneireland.com Change Your Preferences: http://cotyroneireland.com/mailman/listinfo/cotyronelist_cotyroneireland.com Mailing List Archive: https://goo.gl/mQCKrY
