It Is Easier To Be A Missing Heir Than To Find One
Books and movies are full of missing-heir stories, some of which turn into murder mysteries. Huckleberry Finn got involved in a conspiracy with two villains who pretended to be long lost uncles of three orphaned heiresses. The missing beneficiary of the Earl of Dorincourt was a grandchild found living in genteel poverty in America and who became Little Lord Fauntleroy.
There are many reasons to track down a missing family member of a deceased person. Often it is because that missing person is entitled to a share of an estate. Sometimes it is because if that person is deceased, someone else is entitled to that inheritance. Or maybe it's because the missing heir is a potential organ donor.
Occasionally, in real life as in the movies, there is a dying person who wants to locate a long lost family member to make amends and see that the estranged one receives a share of the legacy. Sometimes the elderly relative wants to meet the missing one to decide if he or she is worthy to be mentioned in the will. That's a set-up for an imposter to appear.
Weeding out imposters can be part of the job of the legal professionals responsible for the affairs of the testator. That task would go along with ascertaining the existence of otherwise unknown heirs. And it would be part of locating heirs whose existence is known but not their whereabouts.
This can become a very difficult and complicated task. It's difficult enough to track down, for example, a daughter who might have been married several times in several states. It is even more complicated if she has died and any children she may or may not have had by any of her husbands may have married.
Sons are not entirely problem free. That might have biological offspring that are not legally accounted for. They might have gotten married or been in a less formal relationship in another country.
Sometimes you practically need to be a genealogist to learn that the father of the deceased had a child by an earlier marriage. Maybe that brother was taken to live in another country as a child. Maybe he was adopted by another father and lived under a different name. Later he might have had children who had descendants, one of whom might be living and might have a claim to a share in the estate.
But maybe this child grew up to have a criminal record and lived under a variety of aliases. Maybe he was born again and served as a missionary in a slum in Mumbai. Perhaps he adopted an orphan who is now the nearest relative to the deceased.
Most of the information you need for your heir search is available to the public. It can be found in Social Security records and military records as well as in birth certificates, marriage licenses and death certificates. Churches can provide records of baptisms and accounts of a member's financial contributions. You can do internet searches and find addresses and go to those addresses and talk to the neighbors. Nosy neighbors with long memories can be a big help in the search for a missing heir.
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