Beyond the Grave

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"Beyond the Grave" is a book by Condon and Condon that is well recommended among some internet circles that I participate in about the proper way to leave assets to your heirs after your death. I've heard it goes into lots of reasons of why you shouldn't try to control things for lots of years after your death because inevitably something will go wrong. I haven't yet read this book but have it on my soon to read list. Unfortunately for some of my ancestors, this book wasn't around and a real mess was created. I won't attempt to give you a blow by blow because it was two hours of reading a legal document and a very complex case. But the short version is thus:

William Barr Sr., brother to my 6th great grandfather Samuel Barr willed his estate to his son, John M. Barr for life. Should John predecease him, then to John M's wife Maria and after her death to all their children. Four years after the death of William Barr Sr., son John M. Barr died and his estate passed onto his wife Maria. Their only living daughter, Mary Jane Barr, also had a will bequeathing all her estate back to her great aunts and uncles, the five brothers and sisters of William Barr Sr. As things happened, Mary Jane died a year after her father John M. Barr. Meanwhile John M's wife, remarried to a man by John Bigelow and proceeded to sell the property to a pair or gentlemen whose names I'll withhold to limit confusion.

The question became once Maria remarried, should the bequeathed estate go to her daughter who was dead and then follow her will, or was Maria Bigelow allowed to sell the property to the two unnamed gentlemen. The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania eventually ruled that the estate should have passed onto her daughter Mary Jane Barr first and upon her death, back to the 5 brothers and sisters of William Barr Sr. and that Maria Bigelow's share of that, 1/6th of the original estate was hers to sale. The other 5/6ths should go to the heirs and of the 5 brothers and sisters of William Barr Sr., thirty six in all. 

A large part of the case was determining who those heirs were and what portion of the original 5/6th of the estate was theirs. To complicate matters, this all took place 75 years after the death of William Barr Sr. and all his brothers and sisters were long dead. Some of them had bequeathed their estates to siblings and nephews of theirs. Also confusing was that grand children and great grandchildren were being interviewed to determine who were the 5 brothers and sisters. Some thought some were legal brothers and sisters while others thought some weren't blood related and yet another was either a brother of William Barr Sr. or one of his sons. 

Long story short, the court ruled that although these tracts of land belonging to William Barr Sr's estate were obtained adversely, the statute of limitations of 21 years had passed by and thus, most of the claimants had no claim on the land. One brother of William's did, but he died without children and instead willed estate back to some nephews. Unclear to me is if they received any sort of recompense for the adverse possession. 

I was reading through this fascinating reading because my 4th great grandmother Jane Barr, was the daughter of William Barr who was the son of Samuel Barr, brother of William Barr Sr. and was therefore entitled to 1/36th of the estate should they have won. I hadn't done a lot of research on her parentage yet and so in the process of proving her identity before testifying, the court laid out her relationships including her four siblings and parents. 

Anyway, this who case reminded me of this book, "Beyond the Grave" that I've heard people rave about and how difficult it becomes to control things years after your death and so I think I need to bump this up on my reading list. 

Also pertinent to this post, the estate in question was that of Price Hill, a western part of Cincinnati, Ohio where the well to do used to live to get away from the pollution of downtown Cincinnati. Even back when this case was in court, it was estimated to be worth a few million dollars, hence all the fighting for it. These days, it doesn't appear to be as posh of an area but is still probably worth 100's of millions of dollars just the same.