North East Inheritance database (pre-1858 Durham Probate Records)
Welcome to our online database of pre-1858 probate records (wills and related documents), from Northumberland and County Durham. See separate pages for information on the scope of the database and on the linked online images.
Simple search
If you want to carry out multiple name searches, or browse lists of probate records arranged by name, you may prefer to use the alphabetical lists. These are available on the downloads page. Otherwise, type in the name you are looking for (or the first few letters) and click on the list names button (hitting Enter may not work in all browsers).
Note that the probate database only includes the names of the deceased persons whom wills and administrations relate to. Other names mentioned within wills (widows, children etc) are not included. The collection covers pre-1858 wills only.
You can type in either a full name in the form Lucas, Caroline (including the space), just the surname, or the first few letters only of the surname.
Note that names are not yet standardised within the probate database, so you may need to search for all possible variant spellings, or type in just the first few letters of the name. If you need to refine your search by date, or search by anything other than personal name, you should use the advanced search instead of this one. The advanced search also enables separate searches of surnames and forenames, and searches for variant spellings of the surnames.