Nick, Have my form filled out to request that Perogative Will that John found for me on Michael Shanahan but have a Q before I send it off.... Since original copies of all but 1 Consistorial and 11 Perogative wills (see http://www.from-ireland.net/gene/wills.htm) were burned up the the PRO/Four Courts office in 1922 fire and what the NAI presently has (but for those 12 original wills mentioned above) are ABSTRACTS done by Sir William Betham in 1810...what I am going to get from NAI is Betham's extract of this will, not the original Perogative Will ....is that correct? Also still slightly confused here--my abstract of this will done by H. McDowell gives date of death as 29 Apr 1811, proved 16 Mar 1830 (and recs John pulled agrees with that Date of Grant/Proof being 16 Mar 1830 but indicates Date of Will as 1830) which makes no sense if he really died in 1811 since you can't write a will after you are gone! But you know what really doesn't make sense is the fact that since Betham did his abstracts in 1810 unless this will was actually originally filed in or before 1810-it wouldn't have been there for Betham to abstract it(!) Is it possible that this will is one of the 11 Perogative Wills that the NAI has the original of????? (Dare I hope?) Is there a list somewhere of who the 12 original wills that survived the fire belonged to? Kathy P.S. Will the NAI take an American Express Traveler's check drawn in EUROS? P.P.S. Have you personally ever seen a Betham abstract of a Perogative Will? If so, did it include the names of the witnesses? This is the info I am lacking on the abstract H. McDowell did for my family... if the Betham extracts don't include witness info either, there isn't much point in me ordering a copy of this will. -------------- Original message from Nick Reddan <nickred@webone.com.au>: -------------- John Almost all prerogative will were destroyed in the Four Courts fire in 1922. Sir William Betham made abstracts of most prerogative wills and administrations prior to 1800. Betham extracts are available through the Mormon Family History Library service. Sir Arthur Vicars published an index to the prerogative wills of Ireland up to 1810. <snip>