About 41 million British wills dating back to 1858, including those of former British prime minister Winston Churchill and Princess Diana, were made available in an online database on Saturday.
The British government’s full archive of wills from England and Wales, stretching back more than 150 years, has been put on the www.probatesearch.service.gov.uk Web site.
It includes the wills of World War II prime minister Churchill; novelist Charles Dickens; Diana, princess of Wales; children’s writer A.A. Milne; code-breaker Alan Turing; writer George Orwell and author Beatrix Potter.
The digital copies of the wills cost ￡10 (US$15.5), but basic details for some of them are available online.
“This fascinating project provides us with insights into the ordinary and extraordinary people who helped shape this country and the rest of the world,” British Minister for the Courts and Legal Aid Shailesh Vara said. “It is a fantastic resource not only for family historians, but also for anyone with an interest in social history or famous figures.”
Previously the archives had only been publicly available to search in person.
In Churchill’s will he gave ￡304,044 — worth more than ￡5.1 million nowadays — to his family.
When Dickens died in 1870 he left a will written in cursive script that laid out highly specific directions for his funeral.
“I emphatically direct that I be buried in an inexpensive, unostentatious and strictly private manner,” he wrote, adding that mourners must not wear scarves, cloaks, long hatbands, “or other such revolting absurdity.”
Though the archive has been converted into digital format, the original paper records will still be kept in a controlled environment.
James Watson — the Nobel laureate co-credited with the pivotal discovery of DNA’s double-helix structure, but whose career was later tainted by his repeated racist remarks — has died, his former lab said on Friday. He was 97. The eminent biologist died on Thursday in hospice care on Long Island in New York, announced the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, where he was based for much of his career. Watson became among the 20th century’s most storied scientists for his 1953 breakthrough discovery of the double helix with researcher partner Francis Crick. Along with Crick and Maurice Wilkins, he shared the
OUTRAGE: The former strongman was accused of corruption and responsibility for the killings of hundreds of thousands of political opponents during his time in office Indonesia yesterday awarded the title of national hero to late president Suharto, provoking outrage from rights groups who said the move was an attempt to whitewash decades of human rights abuses and corruption that took place during his 32 years in power. Suharto was a US ally during the Cold War who presided over decades of authoritarian rule, during which up to 1 million political opponents were killed, until he was toppled by protests in 1998. He was one of 10 people recognized by Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto in a televised ceremony held at the presidential palace in Jakarta to mark National
US President Donald Trump handed Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban a one-year exemption from sanctions for buying Russian oil and gas after the close right-wing allies held a chummy White House meeting on Friday. Trump slapped sanctions on Moscow’s two largest oil companies last month after losing patience with Russian President Vladimir Putin over his refusal to end the nearly four-year-old invasion of Ukraine. However, while Trump has pushed other European countries to stop buying oil that he says funds Moscow’s war machine, Orban used his first trip to the White House since Trump’s return to power to push for
LANDMARK: After first meeting Trump in Riyadh in May, al-Sharaa’s visit to the White House today would be the first by a Syrian leader since the country’s independence Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa arrived in the US on Saturday for a landmark official visit, his country’s state news agency SANA reported, a day after Washington removed him from a terrorism blacklist. Sharaa, whose rebel forces ousted long-time former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad late last year, is due to meet US President Donald Trump at the White House today. It is the first such visit by a Syrian president since the country’s independence in 1946, according to analysts. The interim leader met Trump for the first time in Riyadh during the US president’s regional tour in May. US envoy to Syria Tom Barrack earlier
RSS