UK, Extracted Probate Records, 1269-1975

Is anyone familiar with using these records, please? I generally look at original wills, or will indexes or calendars if the wills themselves are not online, so haven’t any experience of this Ancestry dataset.

The results are in text format, with no images, and give brief details under headings - Name, Place, Book, Collection, Volume, Chapter, Text. It is what comes under ‘Book’ which seems to be confusing.

For example, looking at a 1570 Gloucestershire will, these have been taken from printed will calendars which list the testators by year, so the ‘Chapter’ gives the year of probate, and the ‘Text’ is a copy of the entry in the calendar.

The information under the other headings is self-explanatory, except for ‘Book’ which says “Burialls 1604. (Burial)”, and I am struggling to explain to someone why it says that, and that the testator wasn’t buried in 1604 (over 30 years after his will was proved). Wills from some other counties seem to have equally baffling ‘Book’ information.

So what are these Books and why the seemingly meaningless information given under this heading? Any ideas? Thank you!