Comments on: It’s here – the National Probate Calendar

By: Rina

Rina — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 08:19:45 +0000

This is an absolutely fantastic resource that has yielded unexpected information such as: the married names of daughters and proof of other family connections.
However, I agree with David that at present, the database only really works if you are already know the name & likely date of death of an individual. The indexing according to place of probate has to be rectified and until this is done, a warning needs to appear on the site. Lesser problems are the treatment of double-barrelled names.
All in all though a great resource, but how about letting all U.K. base subscribers have access – their input can only help make this an even better resource.

By: David

David — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 21:45:16 +0000

It is impossible to research a surname within a town or locality over the years available because the place of death for each entry has been captured and thus indexed at County level only.

Mick (Comment 12 above ) has noticed the same.

Even the keyword box doesn’t help at all in trying to filter the 100′s of Lancashire entries returned down to the few for Oldham or Rochdale that might interest me, for every surname I wish to research.

Verdict a great resource for known persons with known date of death. Usless for “collecting” data on potential relations from a given town or area unless having a very unusual surname. The indexing needs serious refinement.

By: Elaine O'Gorman

Elaine O'Gorman — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 08:59:23 +0000

This is a great research aid but there are some years that are missing; 1899-1902 incl, and 1911. Is this just an oversight which will be rectified soon?

By: Valerie Alford

Valerie Alford — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 21:17:18 +0000

I have read the comments by users with interest and
am concerned that you should employ more efficient
methods for your many resouces and test them properly, otherwise this would be a constant source of frustration which I can do without.

I await more favourable remarks before investing in your facilities.

Yours truly, Valerie Alford

By: Grunson

Grunson — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 08:37:32 +0000

This is a potentially useful resource. Unfortunately in FTM 2009 you just get an ‘error servicing this request’ in the web merge panel so you can’t merge the data in. Curiously the merge button has started working this morning and reports that it has merged the media. No idea where it thinks it has merged it to though

Ancestry do seem to release products without proper testing, and then often don’t fix them. For example, the 1916-2005 death records are still an awful mess and you often need to read the image yourself to find which quarter the data comes from.

By: Marian

Marian — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 00:20:53 +0000

Have had a subscription with Ancestry.co for several years now named “UK Heritage Package”. With the latest release of the National Probate Calender I assumed that with my subscription I would have access to the Probate Calendar, but it appears not! It “suggests” I need to upgrade my subscription! My current package no longer seems to exist and the suggested ones are double the price I currently pay! Have e-mailed their contact address with my query but had no response! Am not impressed!!

By: Rachel Williams

Rachel Williams — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 19:32:54 +0000

Not sure weather to bother upgrading my membership for this service as the Welsh transcriptions are appalling for census research alone, I can understand it may be difficult to get the grasp of a Welsh place name if you do not speak the language – however some ‘attempted’ translations are beyond a joke!

By: Lottie

Lottie — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 16:04:49 +0000

I also have had problems accessing the data with my 3 month subscription which came with my purchase of Family Tree Software.
I could access the data when it was first released, so why not now?

If you think, Ancestry, that allowing me to dip my toe in the water is now going to make me shell out for yet another membership when I already have one, think again!

By: David

David — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 11:17:43 +0000

I agree with Nick – Being born in Leeds, West Yorkshire I search for many records here and always have to type my own details again and again as you only recognise Leeds in Kent!!

By: Mick

Mick — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 07:11:21 +0000

Great resource but very innaccurately transcribed. Virtually every person I’ve checked has their place of death wrong on the search results. Wether your from Leeds, Bradford, Dewsbury or Sheffield you died in York according to the search results! Makes it extremely hard to find anybody without trawling through every single image. Ancestry seems to have a problem with geography, hence why the predictive search only lists Leeds the tiny village in Kent rather than Leeds the massive city in Yorkshire.