Intestacy and Administration - Long

[pancake101]

Warning – I am not in possession of the full facts and I may have misinterpreted those that I have! I also have no idea of the reasons of actions of anyone involved.

I love family history and genealogy. What I am about to share in no way affects me, I have never met or know anyone mentioned, though the female relative and children are in my my tree, the search for her was initially instigated by another family relative who has also since passed. It is much easier to search now than 20 years ago when I first looked. This is the reason for my interest, sort of tying up the loose ends of a search started a long time ago. Call me curious, inquisitive or nosy - your choice!

A female relative – married and had four children in Scotland, followed by a divorce. Her sons marriage certificate showed she now had a new surname and I later found she had remarried in England. Her death cert showed a son from her second marriage, looking for his birth I discovered he was born 5 years after the last of Scottish children. I looked for a marriage, only to discover he had died, just three years later, in 2006 aged just 48. His father had died five years before his mother.

I looked at the Will but discovered he died Intestate and Administration was granted , 7 months after the death to two persons with the same surname as relatives son and her new husband. I initially thought, he had children but looking, I see the men are neither brothers, half brothers or sons. I discovered the parents of one man and only surname of mother of the second. I am building out the tree of the paternal side, to see where these men lie as I like a puzzle! Possibly cousins or cousins once removed. The sum of the estate is six figures no doubt due to the sale of property, which sold 5 months later. Information gained from the address of death for mother and him and sold prices on the internet¬

So to recap – the man, born and died intestate in England had half siblings, through his mothers side, living in Scotland, this is where those children married more or less in the town they were born in, so never went to live South with mother but stayed with father and his family(assumed).The estate was administered by two members from the greater paternal family, who both lived fairly close by.

Is it likely that the half siblings benefited from the administration? Should they? They certainly knew of the remarriage thus some communication(?) Indeed the son born from the second marriage would have been nearly 20 at the time of his half brothers wedding. Its not impossible that the new son did not know of the half siblings, and visa versa, or they all did but the Administrators did not – I am guessing possibilities! Could father or mother have outlined what was to happen to the property in previous wills?

Will I ever know? I would like to find out as much as I can about the situation.

[Clitheroekid]

All the circumstances you mention are perfectly possible, and have happened in reality. There have been a number of cases where an estate has been administered - either deliberately or accidentally - to exclude someone who should have been a beneficiary.

However, you'll never get to know what actually happened unless you ask the people involved.

[pancake101]

Thank you CK for your reply.

I wont be asking anyone, I can see nothing would be gained other than upset, hurt and questions, whatever happened! I was solving a a mystery of what happened to a sister of someone who was last seen in 1946! There had been a fall out with her father over who she was seeing and she was told never to come back and she didn't.

I had hoped to find siblings or children with the will but instead all I got was confusion!

I assume then, that the half siblings would be the ones to inherit - they may have done, personally I doubt it, for one reason or other but I will let those sleeping dogs lie!