But besides the Probate, Diocesan, and Parochial Registers, if his object is to find out particulars about a country family, he might consult Municipal Documents, County Records, and should refer to the Old Record Commission Reports of 1800 and 1837; these are compiled from the returns made by custodians of records throughout the country, and supply ample information in various miscellaneous matters. They have been already mentioned.
Marriage Licences are sometimes a fruitful field for discoveries. In the country these should be obtainable at the Episcopal Registries. If those required are not to be found there, they may probably be discovered at the Archdeacon’s Courts.
Of course, the searcher in the counties cannot have access to such libraries as those in London and Dublin, unless, indeed, he happens to be near Oxford, where the Bodleian Library is a storehouse of antiquarian information.
The University Library, Cambridge, might also be of great value, but it is not easy to get access within its precincts.
And, while in that neighbourhood, Caius College Library, Cambridge, should not be overlooked, as it might supply some desirable information.
Sundry genealogical details might also be obtained from the Officers of the Clerks of the Peace, for counties, and from the Officers of the Town Clerks, for boroughs.
CHAPTER IX
THE WILL-SEARCHER IN ENGLAND
We have previously seen that wills in Scotland have not the same evidential value as in other parts of Great Britain, that Irish wills can be practically all found in Dublin, and that in London, Somerset House is the depository where wills proved since 1858 have been kept, as well as those proved in the Court of Canterbury, these latter being not altogether restricted to testators who lived in that district. They date from 1383.
There remain, however, the different wills proved in various parts of the country; where exactly shall the searcher look for these?
The year 1858 was indeed an epoch-making year in this respect, for not only was the enactment carried into force that future wills should be deposited in Somerset House, but the old Diocesan Courts, where (as has been previously stated) country wills were mainly kept, were superseded by the District Registries. There nearly all the wills formerly in the old Diocesan Courts are now preserved.