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New database lets people look at the wills of famous British figures online

There is a fee associated with viewing the wills.

By Thor Benson
Bletchley Park statue of Alan Turing. Photo by Stephen Kettle/Flickr.
Bletchley Park statue of Alan Turing. Photo by Stephen Kettle/Flickr.

LONDON, Dec. 27 (UPI) -- A new database will allow users to view wills of the likes of computer scientist Alan Turing, author Charles Dickens, author George Orwell and many others.

The British government has announced it has digitized an archive of 41 million wills, dating back to 1858, according to The Independent.

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For the price of just over $15 (£10) users can request an electronic copy of whatever will they can find on the database, and it will arrive within 10 days of the request. All users need to know is the name of the person and what year they died.

Citizens could previously access these records for about the same price, but they had to visit a specific registry in person. Now, people can search the database from the comfort of their home.

Wills like Dickens' show that he specifically asked that no monuments be put up in his honor, and he preferred his writings reperesent his legacy.

Alan Turing's life is memorialized in the new film The Imitation Game.

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