Where there’s a Will

I have heard it said, “where there’s a will you will find a greedy person and an argument.”

Some people think that thinking about a will is or writing one is just way too morbid, and besides it sounds like you are intending to die tomorrow, they never seem to remember it’s best to be prepared, and even though there will be the inevitable problems, it’s much better for those left behind. At least when Uncle Alvin dashes in and grabs all the family silver before the will is read, he can be told with authority to go and buy it back from the pawn shop and hand it over to the rightful heir.

I have really only ever read one really interesting will.

This will was written in Scotland, for Robert Balfour, and contained the words pre-deceases me, or pre-deceases and mentions another family member, over and over, great great great grandfather was taking no chances with anyone misinterpreting his intentions.

The best thing about the will was we found out in it who his daughters had married and where they lived at the time he wrote out the will. One daughter was married in Ireland, another married and living in America, a son who seemed to be single was an engineer and living in America, the oldest son had died but his three children inherited his share, he had been a Doctor in South America, one of the daughters had a child but there was no mention of any stipulation with her. Another son as a single man had come to Victoria, married after he arrived and as far as the father knew did not have any children. The other children were living in Scotland.
The youngest daughter born when the mother was about 41 needed special provision, she was to remain in the family home with her mother, but sufficient money was to be reserved to employ a companion for the daughter should the mother pass away first, then he stipulated what was to happen with the family home and furniture after the daughter died, she never inherited anything in her own right, but was to be well cared for. This led me to believe that the youngest daughter perhaps had Downs Syndrome or something similar.

So this will found by a distant cousin and shared with me proved very useful it was 9 hand written pages long, including 3 pages of legal jargon. It must have taken someone a few hours to write up.
So where there’s a Will : there may also be lots of useful information.