Inheritance rights of children of firsr wife

I am 54 years of age and my deceased father's surviving son from his second marriage, inherited a sizeable estate upon the death of his mother last year. I do not know whether or not my father or his wife had a will.

My father divorced my mother when I was four and left the state (TN) without any further contact. Both he and his wife were employed during their lifetimes; and my dad was a WW ll veteran. Under the law, am I entitled to any portion of my father's estate?

Thank you.

OCT. 1, 2001

DEAR MARYE:

Yes, you would have the right to inherit from your father's estate, simply because any child has that right--whether or not a divorce occurred has nothing to do with anything.

What month and year did your father die?

First thing you should do is to check at the county courthouse (of the city where he died) at the probate court to see if a will or any intestate (without a will) proceedings have ever been filed under his name. If so, you can look at the file or order copies of any documents in that file, to see if perhaps your name was mentioned in the will (if he had one), or at least you could find out the name and address of the estate executor whom you could contact if you had any further questions.

If I understand your posting correctly, the lady he was married to (for the second marriage) is NOT your mother, right? The only way you could inherit from this lady's estate is if you were named specifically in her will. I hope you weren't thinking that there was someway you could claim an inheritance from this lady if you thought maybe she had received some monies from your father's estate.

SINCERELY,

[email protected]

Re: Inheritance rights

My previous message about my father's estate. He was remarried with two more children by his second wife period. Upon your advice, I called the county probate department and found that he died without a will and there was no probate filed at his death in 1986, however his second wife who died in 2000 had a will. Does this mean he could have signed over property to his second wife prior to his death to avoid probate? If this is the care, do I have any recourse?

Thank you,
Mary E