Suffolk Record Office have been busy digitising their original will collections.
Search at www.suffolkarchives.co.uk (@keytothepast on twitter) for your people and places of interest. Where you see an entry with an image, you can download for £6. You’ll need to register for an account first. You can narrow your search by ticking the box saying ‘Images Only’ on the left hand side of the catalogue search.
It’s a work in progress with more to come but a very positive development for Suffolk research.
Note: prior to the switch away from ecclesiastical courts in January 1858, probate was dealt with in several different church courts that worked in a hierarchy. In Suffolk, the records for the Courts of the Archdeaconries of Suffolk and Sudbury are held by Suffolk Record Office branches (there are also various peculiars). There is a useful wiki here. Wills proved higher up the system may be held by Norfolk Record Office as the home of records for the Consistory (Bishop’s) Court of Norwich (search at www.archives.norfolk.gov.uk with those 1800-1857 digitised and freely available at www.norfolksources.norfolk.gov.uk). Even higher up, records of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury (the Archbishop’s Court) are held at The National Archives and downloadable from Discovery or viewable at www.ancestry.co.uk.
Edit: Suffolk Record Office have confirmed today (25 April) that the indexing of all their wills is a work in progress, along with the digitisation – so keep checking back on the site!
