The Public Record Office on line document site is now called documentsonline (and the PRO is now the National Archives) http://www.documentsonline.pro.gov.uk/ If you are not familiar with this site, give it a go. There are a range of documents available to download though I have never found anything other than wills for my names. The wills are the PCC wills proved at Canterbury, not the local Ecclesiastical Courts. They are therefore mainly - but not exclusively - those of the wealthier strata of society, those with property or land in more than one church court, those not living in a church court (mariners for example) , those with something to hide and those who were a little bit snobby or those who didn't want others knowing their business! You can search on a name or on a parish so useful for those of you doing OPC projects. You get an index giving you bare details free of charge. If you want to download the whole will or document in PDF format there is a charge of £3 per item which you can pay on line using a major credit card or a debit card. You have up to 7 days to download the document. You do need to stay on line while you download your document and this can take a little while. You will need acrobat reader to read the documents - downloadable free from the internet. Version 5 seems to work nicely! Anyway this is something for you to play with if you get bored. Cross posted to Eng-Dorset@britishgenealogy.com as this is a 'general interest message' Happy searching Helen genealogy Helen Jones, Weymouth, Dorset http://www.melcombe.freeserve.co.uk List Admin Rootsweb Eng Dorset & Scammell Lists, and British Genealogy Eng-Dorset, Surnames & Forenames list

I should like to emphasise, if I may, what Helen says regarding wills for mariners - especially for the 18th century - which last time I looked wasn't yet complete - but a few random searches on names I'm researching produced a really surprisingly large (to me at least) number of wills for mariners - both RN and MN - and also a non-mariner's will for someone, who although not a blood relation, was someone from Bridport about whom I am interested - even if it was only to be nosy ;-) And for GBP3.00 for 3 or 4 pages I was quite pleased - I just wish the quality had been a little bit better and that it hadn't suffered the usual ravages of time and damp which so often affects these documents - but a couple of days with Paint Shop Pro spent cleaning it up produced a far more easily read version. Regards Paul On Wed, 14 May 2003 20:23:41 +0100, Helen Jones <hsj@melcombe.freeserve.co.uk> wrote: >The Public Record Office on line document site is now called >documentsonline (and the PRO is now the National Archives) >http://www.documentsonline.pro.gov.uk/ > >If you are not familiar with this site, give it a go. There are a range of >documents available to download though I have never found anything other >than wills for my names. The wills are the PCC wills proved at Canterbury, >not the local Ecclesiastical Courts. They are therefore mainly - but not >exclusively - those of the wealthier strata of society, those with property >or land in more than one church court, those not living in a church court >(mariners for example) , those with something to hide and those who were a >little bit snobby or those who didn't want others knowing their business! >You can search on a name or on a parish so useful for those of you doing >OPC projects. > >You get an index giving you bare details free of charge. If you want to >download the whole will or document in PDF format there is a charge of £3 >per item which you can pay on line using a major credit card or a debit >card. You have up to 7 days to download the document. You do need to stay >on line while you download your document and this can take a little while. >You will need acrobat reader to read the documents - downloadable free from >the internet. Version 5 seems to work nicely! > >Anyway this is something for you to play with if you get bored. Cross >posted to Eng-Dorset@britishgenealogy.com as this is a 'general interest >message' >Happy searching >Helen >genealogy > > >Helen Jones, Weymouth, Dorset >http://www.melcombe.freeserve.co.uk >List Admin Rootsweb Eng Dorset & Scammell Lists, and >British Genealogy Eng-Dorset, Surnames & Forenames list > > > >==== ENG-DORSET-LIFE Mailing List ==== >Look at the website for the Office of National Statistics for information about the census and ordering certificates >http://www.statistics.gov.uk > >============================== >To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, go to: >http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237 50.33.50N 02.26.70W http://www.pbenyon.plus.com/Naval.html