A letter of administration, or appointment as executor (rix) gives the representative of the estate the power to act in place of the deceased, at least as far as gathering the property of the decedant, paying debts and making a distribution to the heirs at law. I have handled cases where the corpus of the estate (The property) was minimal. However since the chance of fraud exists, a bond is required to be posted in the amount of the property, unless there is a will that specifically exempts the executor. The only other exemption was where the om;y heir was the executrix. That was Ga law when I retired. Each state is different, but I have personally seen estates of less that $500 in Alabama in early 19th century which required surieties. Earnie Kansasgirl22@aol.com wrote: IF there is a chance that he didn't have much, then why would bondsmen type guys be needed? As you can tell in my ripe ole age of 21, I have thankfully not had to deal with probate info! And does "security to ensure that she distributed the estate according to law", mean that she had to give her husand's stuff or land away? One last thing, in the book where I found this info, he is listed on the Probate Index with the date of May 6, 1867 found by his name. There are dates by everyone's name. What does this date mean? Oh yeah .... ATTENTION ALL ATTORNEYS retired or not, what in the world is a letter of administration mean ... How does that quote by Denzel Washington in Philidelphia g... something like ,"Explain it to me like I am a 5 year old?" Well thats what I feel like I am asking you guys to do! Again thanks a lot, I am learning a ton of new stuff and I am enjoying every minute of it! Misty Wright (Researching: Adkins (Texas Co, MO, then CA), Blankenship (Texas CO, MO), Bradley (NC then Fulton, CO, AR), Caste/Easte (Crawford and Dent Co, MO), Gatewood (Fayette CO,IL then to MO), Madison(Jackson CO, MO), Matherson, McCaslin, Montgomery (Izard CO/Fulton CO,AR), Moore (Fulton CO, AR), Neal (Fulton CO, AR), Smith (MS then Dent CO, Mo then Texas Co, MO) Stricklin (Crawford Co, MO then Dent CO, MO) ==== BLANKENSHIP Mailing List ==== Checkout the Blankenship webring at www.webring.com and Jacque Reynold's Genealogy Homepage at http://www.familytreemaker.com/users/r/e/y/Jacque-P-Reynolds/index.html - Nice job!