The only thing I can tell you is that Mississippi has a survivors law. At least it did in 1990 when I still owned property there. Now in 2000 I am told that a friends father died and left his property to 4 of his children, bypassing his wife. Try logging on to the Mississippi State Capitol and poking around, you are bound to find something Gingerblu@aol.com

Here in CA, if you hold property with a spouse as "joint tenants", when one dies, the other automatically owns the property. It's probably what you meant by "survivor's law." It's the most common way of a couple owning property together. But there's other ways. One is as "community property", but that does not have the "survivor' benefit without probate, I think. And both spouses should have a will drawn up. If a couple doesn't own the property as "joint tenants", say, only in his name, and he dies, and doesn't have a will, 1/3 goes to the wife and the rest divided between the kids. IF he has a will, he can leave his property to whomever he wants, wife or no wife, as long as it's only in his name. Here's a question: CA's property and marriage laws were greatly influenced by the original Spanish laws. We are a "community property" state, based on the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, at the time CA became separate from Mexico. I'm wondering if FL also has remnants of old Spanish law, either in marriage or real property??? Jan Garland > The only thing I can tell you is that Mississippi has a survivors law. At > least it did in 1990 when I still owned property there. > Now in 2000 I am told that a friends father died and left his property to 4 > of his children, bypassing his wife. > Try logging on to the Mississippi State Capitol and poking around, you are > bound to find something > Gingerblu@aol.com > > > ==== LA-LGHS Mailing List ==== > LGHS: Serving Louisiana Genealogist since 1953. > Visit our website at > http://www.rootsweb.com/~la-lghs/lghs.htm >