Photoessay #2813 - Dying intestate

A cousin of mine recently died without leaving a will;; intestate is what they call it.  I did meet with him a little over a year ago.  My cousin, husband and I had a lovely lunch in an old-fashioned pizza (apizza) place in New Haven.  Um, a bit eccentric.  He was a widower, no children.  I've done the genaology work and had, in the course of building the family tree, knew he had several first cousins; now deceased.  Some children of those cousins, both older than I.

There were friends listed in the obituary.  I contacted one and asked that, if there were any Zunder family artifacts, could they please be donated to the Jewish Historical Society.  I knew he owned two small houses and, it seemed that he might be a hoarder.  He had told me that he had the plans for Zunder School but then he couldn't find them.

Another friend of his contacted me today.  He knew I knew him through this very blog.  He said it was hard to get my email.  I'll have to ask him how he did it.  He said he had some experience dealing with people dying without a will.  The friends want to be the executors, but they legally can't.  Relatives have to be informed and they could sign a paper appointing the executors.

Nobody that I know of would want to go through those small run down houses full of stuff.  None of the relatives would want any monetary interest if there was one.  If you don't take care of this, the state takes over. 

My first cousin lives in Connecticut; she could be a possibility.  I also contacted the two sons of the first cousins.  One is willing to cooperate, the other is out of town but also would likely be willing to help.  As in, willing to appoint executors and sign away interests; not to become executors and have to clean out the houses.

At one point, I looked at the city database for information on his house.  It was still listed in his wife's name and she died 10(?) years ago.  I thought, at the time, I bet he never did the paperwork on her death to change the ownership.  Very very likely.

Don't do this, by the way.  Die intestate.