January 2007

Milestone One achieved:

Kennedy Confirmations and Inventories fully transcribed.

By Iain Kennedy

In Scotland, wills and testaments are indexed in a set of volumes called the Calendar of Confirmations and Inventories. Bound printed copies of these exist and can be consulted for the first edition series 1876-1936 at the Mitchell Library in Glasgow. For the second edition up to 1959 they are slightly harder to access but can be seen at the National Archives in Edinburgh, the Carnegie Library in Ayr and at Glasgow University Archives. From 1960 onwards they can only be seen on fiche at the National Archives.

The level of information in the abstract varies. Here is an example from my own very humble family tree, from 1915.

Kennedy, James. Calico Engraver, Union Place, Lennoxtown, died 4 September 1915, at Lennoxtown, intestate. Confirmation granted at Stirling 23 Oct to Isabella Kennedy, Union Place aforesaid, executrix dative qua relict. Value of estate £138. Eik granted 31 Jan 1916.

[CI 1916 as above Value of additional estate, £203, 15s].

In this case James died intestate (without making a will). If the deceased had left a will, there will also be a statement about when and where it was recorded. ‘Relict’ is just another word for widow.

If additional estate is unearthed later, this is recorded as an ‘eik’. Almost always, the beneficiaries etc are exactly the same and I abbreviate the entry. It is always worth checking carefully though in case one of them has moved address or married, or the spouse’s name has been added. Usually the eik is for a smaller amount, although in the example it was actually higher than the original estate.

The entries are not designed to help genealogists. Of most frustration is that the relationship to the beneficiary is not always given. Sometimes I can make an educated guess but sometimes it is unclear whether it was a spouse or daughter, or son or brother. A married woman will usually appear with both married and maiden names.

Deaths in England or Ireland or further abroad may also appear if the deceased left estate in Scotland.

Further information on wills and testaments can be found at the Wills page at the National Archives.

How likely is your Kennedy ancestor to have an entry in the Confirmations and Inventories? For the period 1876-1936 the answer is, not that likely. Overall about 10% of deaths had a matching entry, but this rose from about 5% in the early years to over 20% towards the end. There is a table below showing the entries compared with total deaths for each year. Although it may be assumed that only the more wealthy appear, this is not always true. There were estates of only £5-6! At the other end of the scale are a handful with six figure sum estates, usually landed gentry or very successful businessmen.

A brief index of confirmations and inventories up to 1901 only is freely searchable at Scotlands People. However the abstracts in the printed volumes contain considerably more information. Full printed copies of the actual wills or testaments themselves can be obtained from the National Archives, once the abstracted version has been located.

The 1479 entries for 1876-1936 have been added to the Kennedy One-Name study database and will be checked for when replying to any queries sent to the project email address shown on the project home page. One or two years from the extended printed series have also been done, for 1958 and 1959 as these give death information that is not available online at Scotlands People (now showing deaths up to 1956 as of January 2007). For this reason, 1957 will be done next. However progress will be slower as they are harder for me to get at.

Year	Confirmations/Inventories	Deaths	Percentage with Confirmations and Inventories
1876	24	242	10
1877	17	238	7
1878	11	243	5
1879	17	263	6
1880	10	238	4
1881	5	242	2
1882	16	227	7
1883	11	254	4
1884	12	238	5
1885	17	270	6
1886	18	246	7
1887	13	252	5
1888	20	244	8
1889	10	207	5
1890	11	247	4
1891	14	282	5
1892	20	244	8
1893	10	239	4
1894	10	229	4
1895	14	260	5
1896	12	229	5
1897	16	272	6
1898	11	258	4
1899	19	265	7
1900	26	270	10
1901	12	249	5
1902	15	272	6
1903	27	256	11
1904	26	287	9
1905	24	256	9
1906	22	295	7
1907	28	264	11
1908	26	299	9
1909	23	277	8
1910	29	282	10
1911	23	237	10
1912	29	241	12
1913	21	237	9
1914	21	274	8
1915	24	316	8
1916	27	279	10
1917	33	297	11
1918	30	348	9
1919	37	258	14
1920	26	253	10
1921	40	214	19
1922	27	260	10
1923	35	222	16
1924	39	229	17
1925	38	227	17
1926	37	231	16
1927	28	203	14
1928	33	243	14
1929	39	238	16
1930	33	218	15
1931	26	213	12
1932	47	242	19
1933	47	217	22
1934	48	245	20
1935	47	237	20
1936	48	256	19
	1479	15371	9.62	%