Someone more knowledgeable than I should answer you about what happens when a person dies without a will. However, this is what I have learned by reading many a court record from a lot of Southern States; in other words, we learn to do by doing. If a person died without a will, there was generally an administration, providing the decedent died with property of any kind. In the case of an administration, first there was an appraisal of the estate. The court (county court, in most cases) would appoint several men (always men), but generally four or so, three of whom were appointed to appraise the estate--make an inventory--and report back to the court. An administrator or administratrix was appointed by the court, and that person generally had to post bond. I forget in what order an estate sale was held, but generally it was held by the administrator or administratrix and a report of the purchasers and their purchases and the amount of the purchase had to be presented to the court by the administrator. This is where one can get an idea of the wealth or poverty of the decedent. If there were minor children, generally there are appointments of guardians, etc. If the family was poverty stricken, the children may be bound out, depending on the time and the place. That is why Probate records and court records and guardian accounts and orphans accounts all have to be read. If you will look at the LDS website--the Family History Library Catalog--at www.familysearch.org--you will see that for nearly every locality listed on the catalog there is a topic labeled Probates. Sometimes these accounts go on for YEARS, especially if there are minor children. Then, occasionally you will see an entry that an executor (in the case of a will) or an administrator will resign his position in favor of another male. Why? Because frequently the widow has remarried, and the new husband is taking over that position. Always read the guardian accounts or orphans court records, where they exist, because this is where you will find the most genealogical links. Sometimes, I have found, as the older children, males, again, of course, get older, they petition the court to appoint them/him as guardians of their younger siblings. In one case I read, the daughter of the deceased petitioned the court to change her guardianship from her stepfather to her older brothers, maintaining that her stepfather was not according her the education to which her rank entitled her (this in Mississippi in the 1840s). This family tiffs make interesting reading!!! Always read the court minutes, where available. Frequently the guardian and the remarried widow (his wife) will fail to provide the court with the annual account of the estate and the guardianship and he is ordered to show cause why he has not presented these in a timely fashion. Years later, you may find in the deeds where the now grown-up heirs are selling the real estate which they inherited, but at times they have to wait until the heirs of deceased heirs are of age. That's why genealogists have bloodshot eyes--squinting at bad microfilms!!! If you can find newspapers of the period and of the area in which you are researching, you may find some interesting tidbits--legal notices, etc. By prowling around courthouses, I found the probate of a man who died in an adjoining estate and in it was a newspaper clipping--a legal notice. His widow had remarried, her second husband had died, and she was having to sell the slaves who had belonged to the first husband. In reading at the probate further, I learned the names of the children she had had by the first husband. One thing leads to another. E.W.Wallace southern California