Why would the youngest daughter be named as Executor?

Question

I'm working on a family from around 1900 to 1940 and there were a large number of land sales. I know from the census that the youngest daughter did not marry and lived on the family land. She sold off a lot of land as "Alice Jarvis, et. al., exec." It makes it seem like she is in charge of all these sales of family land. One of the transfers is to herself.

I am thinking that even though she had living older brothers and sisters, they may have let her take care of everything because they were all married and had their own homes. It just seems a little odd to me. They were in New York. One of the brothers moved to California and Alice lived with him in 1920. She must have come back because she is the head of household in Huntington in 1930 and 1940 and her older sister is living with her there. Most of the land transfers were in the 1920s.

I'm not done yet, but I count 7 transfer so far. She is not created yet.

Comments

Who can say what goes on in families?  I have observed that caregiving duties usually fall on the daughters.

Answer 1

I AM NOT SURE OF THE LAW BACK THEN, HOWEVER THE EXCECTORSHIP CAN ONLY GO TO THE OLDEST LIVING CHILD.I JUST WENT THROUGH THIS WITH MY YOUNGEST SISTER.BY LAW EVEN IF PARENT REQUEST THE YOUNGEST LIVING CHILD,THE LAW STATES ONLY EXCECTORSHIP  CAN GO TO THE OLDEST LIVING CHILD UNLESS THEY ARE IN PRISON AND ALSO IF THE  REMAINING SPOUSE HAS ALSO PASSED. EXCECTORSHIP GOES IN PROGRESSION LIVING SPOUSE OLDEST TO YOUNG CHILD.IF NOT THE FAMILY CAN PROTEST THE WILL AND THE DECISION WILL HAVE  GO BEFORE THE COURT  AND WHEN A WILK GO BEFIRE THE COURTS BY THE TIME THEY GET DONE.YHETE WILL BE NOTHING LEFT  ONLY IF THEIR PARENTS WAS RICH WAS .

Comments

What you say may depend on where.  Not all places have the same laws, and I have seen not-oldest-child executors on more than one occasion.

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This varies considerably from state to state. It doesn't even have to be a family member in most places.

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Melanie and Doug are right.  In California, as I understand it, the only restriction on executors is that they must live in the state.  Exceptions can be made for family, but not others.

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Julie .. wouldn't they also need to be legally adult?

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Probably!  We were all pretty old ourselves when the question came up in my family.

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I am the youngest biological child and my mother made me executor because she didn’t trust the others to abide by her wishes. It was easy to do because she didn’t name any of us by relationship, only by full name.

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Executors usually do have to be legally of age to sign contracts. That also varies from place to place and in different time frames.

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Usually legal age but I sourced one fellow's will a month or so ago. The 16 year old son was executor because his two older brothers were serving in the U. S. Navy WW1

Answer 2

Have you found the will and/or probate files? The probate packet will have all the paperwork and will give the reason why she was appointed executrix. If there was a will then that will be where it was set. If there wasn't a will, then the courts work it out.

Were they in Schenectady?  Ancestry has some probate files for Alice E Jarvis for Letters of Administration.

Comments

Sorry, Alice E Jarvis would be a different person since she died in 1917. More information would help.

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I'm not finding anything other than census records for this family, until I found these land records. They were in Long Island, New York in the Huntington/Melville/Farmingdale area. I live here and our local historical society has been closed for renovations for years and years. This is not my family, I'm just trying to get some info up here for prominent Long Island families. Other sites have a lot of incorrect info.

The father died in 1898 and the mother in 1899. There were 8 children:

Mary 1847 - ?

Charles 1850-1924 (living in California)

Susan Emily 1855-1889

George 1857 - ?

Ruth A 1861 - ? (living in Alice's household in 1940)

Jesse Carlton (1864-1945)

Edward S (1866-?)

Alice 1869 - ?

I'm just going to keep looking into them. I just wondered if anyone had any thoughts. Also, I have noticed, even today, New York seems to have different laws than everywhere else.

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Well, New York is just "special." My wife is doing New York research and grumbles about it it a lot but then she is mostly doing more western NY where there aren't even land records.

In any case, the records for probate will be recorded in the Surrogate Court with jurisdiction for where the deceased died. There would likely be two. One for the father and another when the mother died. Probate is filed under the deceased's name. Ancestry has some of the probate files. New York Genealogical and Biographical Society has a lot as well plus obituaries, etc.

Do you have the parents names? If the property was in multiple counties, there will be probate records in each of them. They should be recorded in the Surrogate Courts for those counties.

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Lucy,

You say you have already found lots of land transfers. This could be tough since details tend to stop about 1880 but if you go to the FamilySearch Catalog and search by place then you find both Land and Property and Probate records for New York. From there you browse images, and pick the county. Most of the counties have images of the index book and from there you can find the property/probate records.

If you don't find it in the probate you might find the probate notice for the father in a newspaper (perhaps using fultonhistory.com).

I know I found an nth uncle with tons of land transfers -- seemed he must have held mortgages for all sorts of folks, and also handled intra-family dealings.

Answer 3

From the fact she says 'et al.' it seems she's not the only executor, so the other executors must have agreed to let her handle things.
Property of their own may also be a good reason not to appoint someone an executor, if there's any danger they might be sued. Otherwise perhaps she had more spare time, or was on the spot, or good at admin?

Comments

Pretty much my thoughts. I found about 10 more land transfers.

Answer 4

Is it possible that the older siblings have already passed away?  Another possibility is that they already received their inheritence and she is the only one benefitting from the will.

Comments

I don't think I am going to learn for sure, but it may just be a case where the father gifted their children their portion upon their marriage. She did not marry. A few of the other siblings did pass, but not all. In 1940 she was the head of household and her older sister was living with her.

Answer 5

My observation has been that unless there is a will, in which someone is designated executor, and even in that case, it is usually the person in the best position to do the job right. It may be a matter of being near enough to the property and place of probate, but also such things as education, business sense and time enter into the decision.

Comments

Or maybe the youngest child was the one most likely to be both alive and healthy enough to take on the job of executor. I recently looked at the probate info for a man who was well into his 90s when he died. He named his two youngest daughters (born to a marriage late in his life) as executors -- a good choice, since all of his older children had died by the time the estate was fully settled.

Answer 6

I'm the youngest daughter and the executor of my mother's will,     perhaps because the older siblings aren't responsible enough to assume the responsibility.    I assure you,  it's not because there's a lot of inheritance involved.