Legal Rights to Heirship Property

Emma Mead Harrell and her daughter

Between 1892 and 1902, my maternal great grandmother Emma Mead Harrell acquired 20 acres of land. After purchasing eleven acres, she purchased nine more several years later. Growing up, I remember the old homestead on the hill across the road. Like my grandfather, who lived on the land, I have an attachment to it as it provided for my family and me. .

No one family member had the authority to keep an heir off the property and take possession of it, as this property belonged to all Emma Mead Harrell's heirs. I can't understand why anyone in the family would try and stop heirs from accessing the property. The law prohibits locking the gate to keep other heirs out.  

The Emma Mead Harrell Estate

A number of family members asked me several years ago to help divide up the heir property. I wasn't prepared for the uphill battle I would face from some family members. To make this land available to her children and grandchildren, my maternal great grandmother worked her fingers to the bone. I am heartbroken to see what is happening right now. Emma's descendants do not live on the land, and the property shouldn't be rented. 

Currently, the land needs to be cleared and divided equally, so if any Harrell descendants are interested in helping to settle this estate, please contact me. It is not a land that only belongs to one person and their family, but to all descendants of that person.  An attorney should be consulted by the Harrell offspring to settle the dispute of the land being rented out.  

The terms heirs, next of kin, and distributees usually refer to the persons who by operation of law—the application of the established rules of law—inherit or succeed to the property of a person intestate on his or her death. Statutes generally confer rights of inheritance only on blood relatives, adopted children, adoptive parents, and the surviving spouse. Line of descent is the order or series of persons who have descended one from the other or all from a common ancestor, placed in a line in the order of their birth showing the connection of all blood relatives. The direct line of descent involves persons who are directly descended from the same ancestor, such as father and son, or grandfather and grandson. Whether an adopted child can be regarded as in the direct line of descent depends upon the law in the particular jurisdiction. The collateral line of descent involves persons who are descended from a common ancestor, such as brothers who share the same father or cousins who have the same grandfather. Title by descent differs from title by purchase because descent involves the operation of law, while purchase involves the act or agreement of the parties. Usually direct descendants have first preference in the order of succession, followed by ascendants (persons in the collateral line of ascent), and finally, collateral heirs. Each generation is called a degree in determining the consanguinity, or blood relationship, of one or more persons to an intestate. Where the next of kin of the intestate who are entitled to share in the estate are in equal degree to the deceased, such as children, they share equally in the estatehttp://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Rights+and+Liabilities+of+Heirs

The heirs are as followed: Shelton Harrell, Sr., Edgar Harrell, Jasper Harrell, Sr., Bertha Harrell, Theodore Harrell, Palmer Harrell, Henry Harrell, Warner Harrell, Ella Harrell, Alec Harrell and Arthur Harrell and all of their offsprings.

I can be reached at 504.858.4658.

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