Another Success Story

Mike Hatcher now has a copy of his 3rd great grandfather's will as a result of trying to prove a family story: a note from his grandmother that said an ancestor in England was "disinherited gentry."

Here's Mike's story:

I set three goals. One, to make sure the ancestor was actually in my family tree. Two, to establish if the family at the time was landed gentry. And three, was my ancestor actually disinherited, and if so, why?

I followed my mother's side back to James Robert Cracknell, the fellow involved, so that was O.K. He is my great-great-great grandfather. His father is shown in the 1851 census as a farmer with 539 acres, and 16 farmhands. In 1861 the land increased to 636 acres, with 8 hands. This was a large farm at that time, so he was clearly a prosperous farmer, and appears in the records of the village church, so maybe he could be called gentry.

To determine if his son James was disinherited I needed to see his will. I was not sure how to do this so asked Annie for advice, and she directed me to the FamilySearch.org website, and showed me how to search by location. By searching the village name it brought up a menu of all different types of records, including probate records. From this I found an index entry that his will was proven in 1871.

The entry identified that the will was filed with the "Principal Registry of Norfolk County". I did some regular internet searching to find out where the 1871 records are filed now, and learned that they are kept at the county seat at Norwich, that they are microfilmed, and can be ordered online.
So I paid Her Majesty's government 10 pounds Sterling on my Visa, and in ten days received an email with the Will attached.

The Will was written in 1858, when young James was only 13 yrs old. Basically his Dad passed the farming business to his two brothers to continue, and when it was sold off the proceeds were divided equally between his wife and 13 children.

So, James was not disinherited, it was just that dividing the estate by 14 did not leave much for each person.
Mystery solved!