Eldest son - Inheritance ?

Kate,

The lease didn't automatically transfer to the oldest son. It was up to the lease owner to decide who to leave it to, in his will. If he died intestate then the estate would be dealt with in accordance with intestacy law. It was common practice to leave the farm to the eldest son but it didn't happen in every case and there was certainly no legal obligation to do so.

Hi Elwyn, thank you for your reply.  If I am unable to find a Will, where do I look for documents associated with Intestacy, please?  Could I assume (dangerous as that may be) that the relationship between Michael and Thomas might be recorded?  It seems that at least three of Michael's daughters left Ireland, possibly one of his sons too.  Given the high number of variations for the spelling of the surname I have been having a lot of trouble finding them once they left this area.  Looking for my ancestors certainly keeps me out of mischief.

Thank you again.

Kate

If someone left a will that required probate or if they died intestate, then in both cases the files would have ended up in the Public Record Office in Dublin. Nowadays that's the National Archives in Dublin. Though many pre 1900 wills were lost in the 1922 fire at the PRO, some have survived and the probate abstracts (summaries) have also survived. Those for the years 1858 to 1922 can be found on the National Achives site in Dublin. (Google will calendars + Dublin). I searched to see if Michael had a file but did not find one. (Very few people in Kings/Offaly left wills. There are only 38 on the site so it was easy to check for surname varaitions). Now that doesn't mean Michael didn't leave a will. Just that he didn't leave one that required probate. It was (and still is) possible to wind up some smaller estates without probate. If the value was below the threshold for what was then called estate duty tax, and if the assets were movable, then you didn;t need probate. And so the will will never make it to the Public Record Office. It likely ended up in a tin box above the mantlepiece till someone threw it out.

Imagine that Michael owned the farm (so that's the unexpired portion of his lease plus all the seed, machinery stock etc on it), and he had £30 in a tin box in the main room. Those were his assets. Typically Michael's will might have said that the farm was to go to his son, his wife was to have a life interest and his 3 unmarried daughters were to have £1 each. The son was to be the residual legatee. Basically all the executor had to do was pay for the funeral, settle any debts, give £1 each to the daughters, advise the widow of her right to stay on the farm, and then hand the tin box to the son saying "everything else is yours." Job done. At some point the son would tell the landlord he had inherited the farm and Griffiths clerks would pick up that change too when they updated their records (which was about every two or three years). Probate becomes necessary for big estates (where estate duty may be due) and for people with investments because financial institutions usually like to see a probate grant before releasing money to the executor. (With smaller amounts they will sometimes release it without probate). But judging by how few wills there are for Kings Co in a 60 year period, it's obvious that the vast majority of estates were wound up without probate being obtained.