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I just watched The Will: Secrets Revealed. It was about the case of Mary Sheehan and her family's Savannah estate. Mary's parents were born in Ireland. When she died in 1983 she had no siblings or nieces/nephews. I won't say how much her estate was worth, because I don't want to ruin the ending of the episode. Two different families from Cork county, Ireland claimed to be heirs to the estate, relatives of Mary's mother Ellen O'Regan.
I won't give away the ending of the show, but it was pretty interesting.
It also showed the people investigating the genealogy with papers all over their desks and doing hours of research. They traveled between Ireland and Savannah. I would think if that had happened today the research would have been a little bit easier, since some documents are online now.
Have any of you known of or been involved with an inheritance case having to prove distant relations?
I just watched The Will: Secrets Revealed. It was about the case of Mary Sheehan and her family's Savannah estate. Mary's parents were born in Ireland. When she died in 1983 she had no siblings or nieces/nephews. I won't say how much her estate was worth, because I don't want to ruin the ending of the episode. Two different families from Cork county, Ireland claimed to be heirs to the estate, relatives of Mary's mother Ellen O'Regan.
I won't give away the ending of the show, but it was pretty interesting.
It also showed the people investigating the genealogy with papers all over their desks and doing hours of research. They traveled between Ireland and Savannah. I would think if that had happened today the research would have been a little bit easier, since some documents are online now.
Have any of you known of or been involved with an inheritance case having to prove distant relations?
This actually not uncommon. I have a sister in law who is an attorney. She subscribes to ancestry.com for that specific purpose.
This actually not uncommon. I have a sister in law who is an attorney. She subscribes to ancestry.com for that specific purpose.
Hmmmm......perhaps that's why so many trees are private? Ocassionally I put in someone's name just to see what I come up with. I discovered a few old friends have died, so, that's why they stopped sending me Christmas cards
I made a mistake earlier. The actual title is "The Will: Family Secrets Revealed." The show is on OWN, the Oprah Network. It chronicles cases in which wills are read. Some cases, such as this one and Hank Williams Sr.'s, involve tracking family trees and getting documents and even DNA tests. In other cases there are no doubts that the heirs are related, but there's conflict over who gets what. Sometimes people are disinherited. The Joan Crawford will was especially interesting. Most of the people in these shows are famous, but not all of them.
I started watching the show last year. In the case of Mary Sheehan, I'm suprised DNA wasn't done for the Hall family also, to prove that Mary's mother was THIER Ellen O'Regan. Good show that reminds us all that we need a will, whether we're rich or not.
I know this is an old thread though I wanted to revive it with some new information, regarding the Sheehan case specifically.
The estate of Mary Sheehan was largely dispersed by 1992, to several members of the Hall family in Ireland, per the Chatham Co. court ruling. I am quite sure no DNA test was done to compare the Halls to the Sheehans in Savannah.
I do admit I am somewhat skeptical of the Halls being the true closest kin to Mary Sheehan (through her mother Ellen Regan). While the genealogist on the case found a birth record for an Ellen regan in County Cork Ireland, dated 1864---all known US documents relating to Ellen (Regan) Sheehan indicate a birth year of around 1880. She married William Sheehan in Savannah Georgia in 1898, making her around 18 if she was born in 1880. (She put down age 25 on the marriage certificate--some alledge that she inflated her age a bit to avoid getting parental consent, which was required for those under 21).
That's an awfully big gap for stated age, if it's true the 1864 birth record is really hers. I am skeptical based partly on this.
I'll post a few good links soon on this.
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