Evelyn Bayna wrote: > One of the papers I found was a "final account" for an estate for May READ. > She had acquired quite a sum of worth for 1961 and the list of heirs > was over 32. My husband's grandfather, a paternal cousin, received > 1/4th 1/6th of 1/2 estate. I contacted the probate office for Cook > Co. , IL and they say the file is 400 pages. That would cost about > $125 to have copied. I have the "final account" that states page > 240 on the first page and lists assets and heirs. There are no > addresses for heirs or genealogical evidence on these pages. My > question, does anyone know what I would ask for that would show how > the heirs are related? The woman in the office was quite helpful > and she is going to look through the file over the next couple of > days, but I only asked her to look for addresses. I didn't know > what else to ask for. For what it may be worth: My father saved a Petition to divide the real estate of a distant cousin who died intestate in Kansas in 1951, leaving only cousins (and rather distant ones at that) as heirs. The petition lists the names of the 80+ cousins, their addresses as of 1954, and the share of the estate they were to inherit (which ranged from 1/10th to 1/630th). All were descendants of a common ancestral couple married in 1798. It's taken me 23 years to figure out the relationships/where each person fits on the tree, but I think I finally put the last few pieces of the puzzle together a couple of weeks ago, thanks primarily to the online 1880 Census Index at Familysearch.org. I suspect I might have solved the problem much earlier if I'd trekked to Topeka (or hired a local researcher) to look at the file. (As an aside, my Dad bought a Stetson and some boots and banked the rest for 15 years, so my sister and I got a college education out of his 1/112th share; rumor has it there was some oil in that land). Within the last few years, my Mother received a letter from the administrator of the estate of a distant cousin who had recently died intestate in Missouri, also without children, siblings, etc. We're not quite sure how he found her, but she was the one to provide him with the names and addresses of several other cousins, so my guess is that in this person's file, it would be my mother's letter that could advise of the relationships. (Unfortunately, this cousin didn't have oil land or much else of any value). So my advice echoes Joan's: ask for the Petition. And I would then consider looking at the file yourself (good excuse for a trip to Chicago, if you ask me), or hire a genealogist to look at it for you. And to any newbies to genealogy who have managed to read this far: let this thread be an intro to one of the key lessons of genealogy: don't overlook those maiden great aunts or bachelor great uncles. The records they leave when they die usually give you more info than that of your direct ancestors. Connie Sheets clsheets1@prodigy.net