Genealogy Chat

Thank you all for your help everyone I'm thinking of the early 1900's in this particular case. Georgina Clements is trying to find the name of a family member and I thought that if this child had been given some provision due the intestacy rules her name might be mentioned, as she has not been able to find any info on her. Apart from having a date of death for the mother. I wondered if it could be another way of gaining information as some wills can be informative this might have yeilded more info if a will wasn't available. Thanks again Lorraine

It depends on what year and how much the estate was worth. If someone dies intestate then the Law sets down how it should be distributed and administrators must follow these rules. Basically it is spouse(married not co-habitee) children,parents,siblings, grandparentsand their offspring (aunts and uncles,cousins ) There it stops. The only exception is that people can challenge this if they feel they have not been given "reasonable provision". This includes family, people maintained by the deceased and also unmarried partners (fairly recent). Complicated! Its called "Letters of administration" and this granted only to the next of kin in the order as above. Wifes and husbands do not get everything only the first £125,000 or £200,000 depending on if there are children. This includes all the estate including family home.So if your spouse has no will you can lose your home (if its not in joint tenancy). Bob

Andrea - was it Letters of Administration? Jacqui

hi Jacqueline I accidentally pressed enter thats why there was only a HI. I'm aware of what intestate means and that there is specific order in which people benefit. I'm enquiring on behalf of someone who is trying to find family members but doesn't think there is a will. I thought that if members of a family were traced by the authorities it would be helpful as another source of enquiry but wondered if we are allowed access to this info. Just a thought Lorraine

I used to work in a Probabe department, but it is quite a while ago. However, I believe that if you didn't leave a Will then you couldn't get a Grant of Probate - there was something else instead, but I can't remember what it was. If someone died without leaving a Will, I believe the immediate family (husband / wife - if none of them - parents -if none of them - siblings and so on) that got everything. If there was more than one person (i.e in the case of siblings etc) it got split equally amongst them - once all costs had been taken out. Hope this helps and if I ever remember what the other form was called, I will come back and let you know.

Hello again, sorry but all I got on the first message was the title and Hi. I think it would be pretty impossible to determine who benefitted from an estate if the deceased died "intestate" unless there was a challenge on the estate, that is to say someone thought they had a right to part of the estate and did not benefit in some way. There would then be some sort of legal wrangling which would involve a solicitor, and this might be the way forward if you could determine who was the solicitor of the deceased during their lifetime. Cannot be more specific - sorry. Jacqui

Hi - are you asking what dying intestate means? because it means dying without leaving a will. If you aren't asking that question, then I'm sorry I dont know the answer. Jacqui

Hi Does anyone know if you can find out who benefited from someone dying intestate. If there is no will it would be useful to find out who was responsible or gained from it. Would you be able to order from a probate office or does there have to be a will in order to get probate papers. just curious Lorraine