OK all, here is what really happened with the will of "Thomas Smith." Many thanks to all who tackled the problem. The real name of the testator was my father, Thomas Parker Kilby. The dates are real. His place of residence at the time he wrote the will and at the time he died was Lake St. Louis, St. Charles County, Missouri (a suburb of St. Louis). I did not mention that fact in the "quiz" but several of you raised the question of his locale, which was good. Though his full name was Thomas Parker Kilby, he never went by anything, even on his driver's license, than Parker Kilby. The only record of his first name is in the obituary, because that is what went on the death certificate. The informants for the death certificate should have known better--the undertaker who was a close family friend and his son whom I called Tommy in my quiz. The four sons are: 1. "Kevin", the oldest, living in Virginia Beach. He is a retired Navy Commander and it was astute of the one respondent to pick up on this fact. He has two children. 2. "Monty", living in Heidelberg German at the time the will was written but living outside of Frankfurt at the time the will was proved, had no military service. He had married a German woman and moved there in the early 1980s. He had three children. This one was tricky and explains why he was named last in the will, but second in the obituary. He is the adoptive son of the testator, a son by his wife's first marriage. In birth order and in the family structure, he is #2 but legally is the last son, as he was not adopted legally until age 16. 3. "Cary" and "Tommy "are sons #3 and #4 and both were living in the St. Louis area when the will was written and when it was proved. 4. No one picked up on this, and in fact I never picked up on it until I read the obit again. The obit says that Thomas Smith was "buried in Memorial Gardens Cemetery with no services. " This is absolutely NOT true. "Thomas" was cremated, there was no interment anywhere, and there is no such place as Memorial Gardens (unless that is a made up place used for people who are cremated), but there WAS a wonderful memorial service held at a restaurant per the testator's instructions (which were never put in the will, but carried out nonetheless). 5. The will did name the eldest son "Kevin" as the executor, though he lived out of state. I would never recommend naming someone who lives out of state to be one's executor. It only complicated things. If you ARE named executor and DO live out of state, please do everyone a favor and refuse the burden. There is no law stating the oldest son has to be the executor. There is no law stating an attorney has to handle the affairs. In this case, in fact, the son "Cary" did all of the legal work while both the attorney and the executor collected all the legal fees they could claim by law. Lessons learned: Things are not always as they appear at first blush. Analyze all documents and make a list of questions to be answered and clues to be pursued. I am really impressed with some of the ways people approached this problem, and I truly thank all of you who took the time to respond. It was as much of a learning experience for me as I hope it has been for most of you. Happy New Year to all of you, Kindest Regards, Craig Kilby, aka "Cary" in the quiz Craig Kilby [email protected] EarthLink Revolves Around You.