NEW SOUTH WALES PROBATE NOTICES ONLINE

Courtesy of the 
SOCIETY OF AUSTRALIAN GENEALOGISTS…

NSW Probate Notices now online We all recognise that newspapers are not what they once were, and from January of last year the requirement that Probate Notices were published in the newspaper ceased. While some may still choose to publish a notice in the paper, it is now a requirement of the Supreme Court of NSW that they appear on its website. While the site is quite new, this is going to be an extremely useful tool for family historians to check for recent deaths in NSW. The easiest address to use for the site is: www.tinyURL.com/scnsw-probates. You can enter quite a broad search (for example a surname) and the results screen will show you the full name of the deceased, their location, date of death and date that the application for probate was lodged. Clicking on their name (which is hyperlinked) opens a new screen which shows who applied for Probate, Letters of Administration etc. Although you don't get additional information such as the occupation of the deceased, at least you get an indication of where they lived and the exact date of death. You can also search by a place or postcode rather than name. In time it is likely to become a useful free site for checking deaths in NSW, so it's one to add to your favourites list! Remember too it records applications for probate which occurred after 21 January 2013 and the death may have occurred much earlier; in one example we found the death actually occurred in 1979.