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    #SaveOurWills You can help!

    Feb 09, 2024 9 minutes

    The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) consultation paper, published 15 December 2023, proposed the digitisation of the England and Wales collection of wills from 12 January 1858 onwards – and the destruction of the will documents after 25 years, citing heavy storage costs as the driver for this move.

    This proposal to destroy such a collection has met with extreme shock and in many instances horror by the genealogy community, of more below.

    There is something (or rather four things) that you can do about it however.

    About the wills collection under threat

    The records held by HMCTS (His Majesty’s Courts & Tribunals Service) that the MoJ consultation paper proposes to destroy are records held at the Probate Records Centre in Birmingham, which include probate records for England and Wales from 12 January 1858 to present (www.ironmountain.com/en-gb/resources/case-studies/h/hm-courts-and-tribunals-service). The url below provides details, including how you may order office copies of a will dating from 1858 onwards and other information about UK wills: www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/wills-or-administrations-after-1858/

    “A dangerous precedent is being set: the entire PCC PROB11 class is digitised and online – should The National Archives now rid itself of all the wills in that vast series?”

    1. Get informed:

    The 32-page consultation paper, issued on 15 December, on thestorage and retention of original will documents may be read here: www.gov.uk/government/consultations/storage-andretention-of-original-willdocuments.

    2. Share the #SaveOurWills news:

    Time is of the essence. You can help to share news of the petition, started by professional genealogist Richard Holt, to #SaveOurWills. You can find details of it here: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/654081

    3. Sign the petition:

    If you are a British citizen (living anywhere in the world) or a UK resident – you can sign the petition: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/654081/signatures/ new

    Your voice counts:

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