Welcome to the PRONI Will Calendar Application! This database allows you to search will calendar entries for the district probate registries of Armagh, Belfast and Derry/Londonderry from 1858 to 1965.
You can also view digitised copy wills for, Armagh, (1858 to 1918), Belfast (1858 to 1909) and Londonderry (1858 to 1899). If you see a 'view image' link next to a search result, this means that you can see a digital copy of the transcribed will.
Search the Will Calendar Application
Further guidance and resources
To help you use this application, please see our search guidance below.
For further guidance on wills and will calendars, see our Wills and Probate information leaflet and our guide to Understanding Wills and Probate.
Additionally, if you are searching for surviving pre-1858 will calendars, try using our Name Search Application.
Search guidance
To carry out a search in the Will Calendar Application, input the search criteria in the relevant field(s) and then follow the 'search' link. You can search by any or a combination of the following criteria:
- surname
- forename
- registry
- date of death range
- date of grant range
- full abstract
Searching by name
The forename and surname criteria will return results for all or part of a name. For example, if you are unsure whether ‘Brown’ or ‘Browne’ is the right spelling, inputting Brown will return entries for both spellings.
If you only know the initial of the forename, you can search using just this letter, which will return results for all names with that letter.
Searching the will abstracts
You can also search for words, names or phrases within the full abstract of the will. This can help you narrow down a search, particularly for common names, by:
- title (e.g. private, lieutenant)
- address details of the deceased
- place of death
- significant events
- names of the executors
Searching by date range
There are two date fields you can use for your search – the date of death and the ‘Date of Grant’ field which relates to the date the will was probated.
You can enter a generic date range or a more specific range. In either case, the results will be displayed in chronological order within the range entered.
You can search an exact date by entering the same date, month and year into both the ‘date from’ and ‘date to’ fields.
Sorting results
While the application will default to displaying your results by surname, you can change this to forename and date of death.