List mates, Hi. I'm new to the list, not new to Georgia research. However, I have a question I've not been able to answer for myself and hope one of the experts on this list can help. Does anyone know when the practice of widows and their minor children, if any, petitioning the court for 12 months support out of the estate of a loved one began and how long such a practice continued? I've never seen anything about this, so just from my own research, it seems that if a man were to die without a will, and usually he was too poor to have one, the widow could make a petition to the court for enough funds from the sale of the dead man's assets to support her for 12 months. I found the death date for my husband's great-great-grandfather through such a petition, and that same petition also showed that my husband's great-grandfather was the deceased man's son. So, you can understand why I like to look for such records when I'm having problems finding a death date for someone I can't find a tombstone for etc. Thanks for reading this post. I'm looking forward to participating in this list! Judy Campbell with GA roots all around