Maybe changed a bit from my original posting on this - Wills and Deeds: Wills are important sources of genealogical information even at times for those whose ancestors did not write a will. Every will had witnesses and at times these witnesses were simply yeomen or servants of the testator. For the person who is familiar with general surname distribution in Ireland the surnames of the witnesses and the counties in which the testator owned land can point to places where a witness as possibly from. Putting sets of wills made by people of the same surname together can possibly build up a picture of familial relationships, cousins, siblings, parents, uncles and aunts. Wills can tell such stories about the people who wrote them, the good deeds done by landlords, that not all were terrible people, the marital breakdown, the disinherited children, the attachment to servants. They can tell of the way of life of the people, the movement around the country, or, they can tell nothing more than just a few names. Not everything went up in smoke in the fire at the Four Courts in 1922, a lot did - but not everything...too much for one mail There were two types of 'Court' dealing with wills and administrations. The Consistorial and the Prerogative Courts. The Consistorial court dealt with 'local' wills and deeds - that is those which referred to property/land within the boundary of that diocese only. The Prerogative Court on the other hand dealt with a will or administration bond if it involved property which had a value of more than £5 in a second diocese. So - the wills and Administrations of the Prerogative court in general would have been those of people who were relatively wealthy and who owned property in two Dioceses or more. Pre 1858: Wills & Administrations of the Consistorial Courts. Before 1857, the Church of Ireland as the Established Church was responsible for all testamentary affairs. Each Diocese had a Consistorial Court which was responsible for granting probate to a will. Probate is the legal authentification of a will and confers on the administrators the power to administer the estate. These courts also had the power to grant letters of Administration to the next of kin or the main creditor on the estates of those who died intestate (without making a will. Each Court was responsible for it's own Diocese, but if the person owned property valued at more than £5 in another diocese then the responsibility for the will or the administration passed on to the Prerogative Court. The Prerogative Court was under the responsibility of the Archbishop of Armagh. The Wills and Administrations of each Consistorial Court were held locally until the abolition of the testamentary authority of the church in 1857. After 1857 - the Pro began to collect these from the local courts and transcribe them into Will and grant Books, these were then indexed. All the original wills were destroyed in the fire of 1922 and most of the Will and Grant Books - the Will Books for the Dioceses of Down (1850-58) ; Connor (1818-20, 1853-58) survived. Also the Grant books for the Dioceses of cashel (1840-45) ; Derry and Raphoe (1818-21) and Ossory (1848-58) survived. As did a very few original documents. The indices were not destroyed although some are badly damaged and difficult to read - pages have been repaired as best as possible. Wills are indexed alphabetically - information : the testator's address, year of probate and sometimes occupation. Administration Bonds - indexed by year and under the initial letter of the person's surname. Information: full name, sometimes address and sometimes occupation. The Prerogative Court The court which dealt with property spread over two or more Dioceses. Up to 1816 it was not held in a 'fixed' location - usually the house of the presiding Judge. From 1816 on - it was held in the King's Inn Building. Records pre 1816 can be thought of as being incomplete - it is not known if all were collected and sent to this one central place for indexing. Again, as for the records of the Consistorial Court, all original documents were transferred to the Public Records Office after 1857 and the original Wills and Grants of Administration were transcribed into Will and Grant books. These were then indexed. The originals and most of the indices were also destroyed in the fire of 1922. Post 1857 The probate Act of 1857 took away the testamentary authority of the Church of Ireland. Now - there was a Principal Registry in Dublin and eleven District Registries. The rules and administration remained something the same. The Principal Registry was the equivalent of the Prerogative Court (but it also covered Dublin and a large area around it). Again with these documents - transcripts were made of the originals. A 'Calandar of Wills and Administrations' was produced for each year, arranged alphabetically. In these 'Calandars' are found the name and address of the deceased person, where and when they died, the value of the estate, the place of Probate and the name and address of the person to whom probate was granted..the relationship of this person is also mentioned if they are related. Copies of these Calandars survive and while these date from 1858 forward it is possible to find records of those who died prior to 1858. There is a consolidated index to the period from 1858 -1877. These are to be found on the shelves in the National Archives in Dublin and the Public Records Office in Belfast. After the fire in 1922 the Public Records Office made an attempt to put together something of that which had been lost. To this effect, they requested copies of originals from anyone who would or could supply these, lawyers, families, researchers and so managed to save some of the past. There is a card index in the National Archives in Dublin - alphabetical listing material recovered. Separate card indices exist for those abstracts taken by researchers such as Thrift, Jennings, Crossley and miscellaneous donations and bequests since that time. Currently - Ancestry.com have one of their ten day freely accessible databases: this is an index to those documents.