Linda - thought perhaps this might help a little on the land ownership - the right to survivorship distinguishes a joint tenancy from the tenancy in common - under a tenancy in common, each tenant's share passes to his own heirs at the death of the tenant - in a joint tenancy, the survivor gets all the property With this in mind - it would not be unusual for brothers to purchase land under the tenancy in common, since their part of the land would go to their heirs. Jinks