Addressing the question: > In the experience of the VA-List what possibility is there that it > took 14 years to settle his estate in this wilderness area? I've found that 20-25 years is not all that unusual in finally settling an estate. (I can point to some that took longer than that.) Locality may be one factor, but the biggest factors seem to boil down to: 1. How many debts did the deceased have? Creditors wanted their money yesterday (before the estate was dissipated). 2. What was the financial state of the widow and children, and what were the ages of the children? Often the time until estate settlement depended upon the financial resources of the survivors, and who and why they were motivated to push for settlement. For example, I've seen estates languish for years because when the deceased died, the widow was well situated, the children were young, and it seems that they really didn't have a motivation to settle the estate until the children began to move away from the old home place. 3. Distance from the courthouse and the amicability of the legatees, or potential heirs, might be a factor. I can read between the lines on some estate settlements that the estate was actually settled and distributed informally between family members, and it was only the influence of an outside factor that finally pushed the survivors to a formal, legal settlement. An example of this is the sale of land - often years after the death - when the buyer might insist on legal and clear title from the seller (who informally inherited the land from such an informal family-oriented division). So from what I've seen 14 years is really not all that unusual at all. Lou Poole To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-roots.html