Heir Search Services

Genealogical research is vital to locating heirs of estates. Even though heirs are alive, genealogical research is needed to flesh out family connections, often through deceased relatives. Without genealogical research, people can mistakenly assume that no living relatives exist to claim an estate. This is rarely the case. Genealogy is used to identify close relatives, such as parents or children, all the way to more distant cousins depending on the family structure.

Each case has a different level of complexity; some cases take mere minutes, while others can take hours up to days or weeks. Many considerations can arise, here are a few:

• The need to distinguish between full relationships, half relationships, step relationships, and adoptive relationships.
• Going beyond one document to determine if the information is correct or not.
• Addressing name changes and/or name variations.

Below are examples that demonstrate these considerations.

When Siblings Claim but Exclude Nieces and Nephews

When siblings file a petition, a common problem is excluding the descendants of any predeceased siblings.

In a Massachusetts case, five siblings were claiming their sister’s estate. Research revealed that the decedent had three predeceased siblings, two full and one half. The half-brother died without issue. However, the two full siblings had children. It was determined that two nieces and one nephew were entitled to shares of the estate along with their aunts and uncles.

A Pennsylvania case had one brother claiming the entire estate of his sister. Research was conducted in Utah, Wyoming, Nevada, Florida, and Pennsylvania. The decedent was married twice, but no children were found. Researching the decedent and her brother’s parents revealed they had three other siblings. One died as an infant, but the other two were both married multiple times. In addition to the brother, four nephews and one niece were entitled to shares of the estate.

Going Beyond a Single Record

An Ohio case showed how one record cannot be trusted in isolation. The decedent’s sisters were claiming and indicated on his death certificate that he was never married. However, a quick search of an Ohio divorce collection revealed he had a seven-year marriage with one child. His daughter was in the Ohio birth index and determined to be the sole heir to his estate.

When Step Relations Try to Claim

In a Maryland case, stepchildren were trying to claim the estate of their stepfather. However, they were not the rightful heirs because the decedent had living cousins on both sides of his family. Though the case originated in Maryland, most of the research dealt with records in Georgia. Careful research was needed to determine that some aunts and uncles, on both sides, died without issue. The rightful heirs were identified as one paternal first cousin, two maternal first cousins, one paternal first cousin once removed, and three paternal first cousins once removed.

Adoption

A Florida case involved adoption. The petition indicated that the heirs to the decedent were unknown. The decedent’s mother’s will revealed that she had an adopted son. Further research determined that this adopted son was actually the decedent’s biological son; but for a unknown reason, his mother adopted him. As a result, he was the sole heir to the decedent’s estate as his adoptive brother.

Another Florida case exhibited a different situation with adoption. Some nieces and nephews were claiming the estate of their uncle. Their uncle was married once to a woman who had children from a previous marriage; he adopted them. As a result, adopted children and grandchildren were the rightful heirs to the estate rather than the nieces and nephews.

Name Changes and Multiple Marriages

In a Maryland case, genealogical research was needed to identify a name change and locate the rightful heirs. Cousins originally claimed to be heirs to the estate; but research revealed that a half-brother and the descendants of a half-sister were the rightful heirs. Initial research proved difficult, but the location of the decedent’s mother’s social security application revealed an important detail: she completely changed her name. This suggests the decedent’s name had changed too. That information allowed research on the family to progress. This new information allowed us to locate the family in the 1950 Census and identify the decedent’s father. There was another member of the household who was identified as a stepson. This would suggest that he related to the decedent. However, additional research established that he was not the son of either of the decedent’s parents.

Further research on the decedent’s father revealed that he had been married two times before his marriage to the decedent’s mother. Research on his first marriage determined that it yielded no children. Research on his second marriage determined that the decedent had a half-brother and a half-sister.  His half-brother is living and therefore an heir to the estate. His half-sister is deceased, but her descendants are heirs to the estate.

When One Estate Inherits from Another

A Florida case required careful genealogical research that resulted in opening a second estate to complete the first. In the first estate, cousins had filed. However, the decedent’s mother post-deceased her, so her estate was the sole heir. This necessitated opening the mother’s estate and identifying her heirs. Though the case originated in Florida, research in a variety of states was necessary to assemble the family. The mother was an only child, so a tree of her cousins, both paternal and maternal, had to be constructed to identify her heirs.

The paternal family mainly lived in New York and Connecticut and was quite challenging to untangle, in part due to Italian names that appeared in a variety of ways on records. Additionally, the paternal grandfather was married twice. A careful review of records was necessary to determine which aunts and uncles were full, half, and step. One line had to be traced through the early death of a first cousin with a son whose name was changed.

The maternal family lived primarily in Connecticut and New Jersey. Extensive research was necessary to identify the right family because two women with the maternal grandmother’s name and age appeared in the same location. Just like the other side of the family, Italian names with wide variation slowed down the research. One paternal uncle was married three times; it was important to trace all three marriages for children; he only had one.