Investigations of a Dog

• 1 October 2012: Now obsolete as Your Archives is closed.
  
• Update, 28 August 2010: Version 2.2: previous version was broken because TNA website page structure has changed. Now working again.
• Update, 6 March 2010: Version 2.1 fixes a bug with extra spaces; correctly deals with people with the title Reverend, Sir or Lady; includes the Type and Notes parameters by default.
• Update, 21 February 2010: Version 2.0 is now released. This is because I’ve changed the PCCWill template on Your Archives, adding some extra fields. The old bookmarklet and templates created by it will still work but will miss out the extra fields. There is only a “basic” version of 2.0 as the new template has more fields which need to be set manually.

This bookmarklet helps with creating pages for will transcripts on the UK National Archives Your Archives wiki. Wills proved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury and its Interregnum equivalent are available from DocumentsOnline, and transcripts can be posted on Your Archives. These wiki pages should have a template which puts key information into a standard form and creates a link back to DocumentsOnline. This bookmarklet makes the process of creating and editing will transcript pages less labour intensive by automatically extracting the relevant data from a DocumentsOnline page and putting it into a template which can then be copied and pasted into a wiki page.

Licence

This program is in the public domain. It is distributed without warranty.

Source code is included in the bookmarklet itself and can easily be copied into an editor. You are free to modify and redistribute it in any way. You can find more explanation in this blog post.

Requirements

To use the bookmarklet you must have JavaScript enabled in your browser. You will need to allow pop-ups and scripted windows. It will probably work on any recent browser with JavaScript. So far it has been tested in the following browsers:

• Firefox 3.0 (Linux)
• Firefox 3.5 (Windows Vista)
• Internet Explorer 8 (Windows Vista)
• Safari 4 (Windows Vista)

Installation

To install the bookmarklet, just save the following link to you Bookmarks/Favorites, either by right-clicking or dragging and dropping:

• PCC Will

How To Use

1. Go to a DocumentsOnline page which contains the details of a single will. For example, Sarah Rawlinson.
2. Click the bookmark link in your browser.
3. A new window will appear with a text area containing the template with the correct details filled in. The bookmarklet script automatically selects the correct template (PCCWill or CPWWill) according to the date of probate.
4. Select and copy all of the text in the new window, then paste it into the edit box of the corresponding Your Archives wiki page (for example, Sarah Rawlinson’s transcript). In browsers other than Safari the text will automatically be selected when you click on it. In Safari you will need to select it by dragging the mouse.
5. Check the Forename and Surname parameters. The script will fill these in but will get them wrong if the testator has a title other than Reverend, Sir or Lady, or more than one forename.
6. Manually fill in the Signed, Cty and Gender parameters. If the testator has the title Reverend, Sir or Lady, gender will be set automaticallly.
7. The template also allows an optional parameter called YorkRef, which is only for wills proved at both York and Canterbury. This is not created by the bookmarklet as it is not relevant in most cases. You should add it manually if needed.

For more details on how to use the template and what its parameters mean, see the template documentation.

Feedback

You can use the comments box below, or the mailform, to report bugs and compatibility issues, suggest improvements, or give any other feedback.