Issue (genealogy)

Last updated

In genealogy and wills, a person's issue means all their lineal descendants.

Contents

Lineal descendants

Issue typically means a person's lineal descendants—all genetic descendants of a person, regardless of degree. [1] Issue is a narrower category than heirs, which includes spouses, and collaterals (siblings, cousins, aunts, and uncles). [2] This meaning of issue arises most often in wills and trusts. [3] A person who has no living lineal descendants is said to have died without issue.

A child or children are first-generation descendants and are a subset of issue. [4]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Will and testament</span> Legal declaration by which a person distributes their property at death

A will and testament is a legal document that expresses a person's (testator) wishes as to how their property (estate) is to be distributed after their death and as to which person (executor) is to manage the property until its final distribution. For the distribution (devolution) of property not determined by a will, see inheritance and intestacy.

Primogeniture is the right, by law or custom, of the firstborn legitimate child to inherit the parent's entire or main estate in preference to shared inheritance among all or some children, any illegitimate child or any collateral relative. In most contexts, it means the inheritance of the firstborn son ; it can also mean by the firstborn daughter, or firstborn child.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Intestacy</span> Dying without leaving a will

Intestacy is the condition of the estate of a person who dies without having in force a valid will or other binding declaration. Alternatively this may also apply where a will or declaration has been made, but only applies to part of the estate; the remaining estate forms the "intestate estate". Intestacy law, also referred to as the law of descent and distribution, refers to the body of law that determines who is entitled to the property from the estate under the rules of inheritance.

Paternity law refers to body of law underlying legal relationship between a father and his biological or adopted children and deals with the rights and obligations of both the father and the child to each other as well as to others. A child's paternity may be relevant in relation to issues of legitimacy, inheritance and rights to a putative father's title or surname, as well as the biological father's rights to child custody in the case of separation or divorce and obligations for child support.

In civil law and Roman law, the legitime, also known as a forced share or legal right share, of a decedent's estate is that portion of the estate from which he cannot disinherit his children, or his parents, without sufficient legal cause. The word comes from French héritier légitime, meaning "rightful heir."

Per stirpes is a legal term from Latin, used in the law of inheritance and estates. An estate of a decedent is distributed per stirpes if each branch of the family is to receive an equal share of an estate. When an heir in the first generation of a branch predeceased the decedent, the share that would have been given to that heir would be distributed among that heir's issue in equal shares. It may also be known as strict per stirpes or the old English approach, and differs from distribution per capita, as members of the same generation may inherit different amounts. In section 33 of the Wills Act 1837 in England and Wales, it is called according to their stock.

The hereditary peers form part of the peerage in the United Kingdom. As of August 2023, there are 805 hereditary peers: 30 dukes, 34 marquesses, 189 earls, 110 viscounts, and 442 barons.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Succession to the British throne</span> Law governing who can become British monarch

Succession to the British throne is determined by descent, sex, legitimacy, and religion. Under common law, the Crown is inherited by a sovereign's children or by a childless sovereign's nearest collateral line. The Bill of Rights 1689 and the Act of Settlement 1701 restrict succession to the throne to the legitimate Protestant descendants of Sophia of Hanover who are in "communion with the Church of England". Spouses of Catholics were disqualified from 1689 until the law was amended in 2015. Protestant descendants of those excluded for being Roman Catholics are eligible.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Slayer rule</span> Murderer cannot inherit from their victim

The slayer rule, in the U.S. law of inheritance, stops a person inheriting property from a person they murdered.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Royal descent</span> Genealogical kinship and descent

A royal descent is a genealogical line of descent from a past or present monarch.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Forced heirship</span> Form of testate partible inheritance

Forced heirship is a form of testate partible inheritance which mandates how the deceased's estate is to be disposed and which tends to guarantee an inheritance for family of the deceased.

In law, a prohibited degree of kinship refers to a degree of consanguinity, or sometimes affinity between persons that makes sex or marriage between them illegal.

An order, line or right of succession is the line of individuals necessitated to hold a high office when it becomes vacated, such as head of state or an honour such as a title of nobility. This sequence may be regulated through descent or by statute.

In inheritance, a hereditary successor is a person who inherits an indivisible title or office after the death of the previous title holder. The hereditary line of succession may be limited to heirs of the body, or may pass also to collateral lines, in case of extinction of heirs of the body, depending on the succession rules. These concepts are in use in English inheritance law..

Laws regarding incest vary considerably between jurisdictions, and depend on the type of sexual activity and the nature of the family relationship of the parties involved, as well as the age and sex of the parties. Besides legal prohibitions, at least some forms of incest are also socially taboo or frowned upon in most cultures around the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Descendants of Louis XIV</span> People descended from King Louis XIV of France

Louis XIV (1638–1715), the Bourbon monarch of the Kingdom of France, was the son of King Louis XIII of France and Queen Anne.

A lineal or direct descendant, in legal usage, is a blood relative in the direct line of descent – the children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, etc. of a person. In a legal procedure sense, lineal descent refers to the acquisition of estate by inheritance by parent from grandparent and by child from parent, whereas collateral descent refers to the acquisition of estate or real property by inheritance by sibling from sibling, and cousin from cousin.

The law of persons in South Africa regulates the birth, private-law status and the death of a natural person. It determines the requirements and qualifications for legal subjectivity in South Africa, and the rights and responsibilities that attach to it.

The South African law of succession prescribes the rules which determine the devolution of a person's estate after his death, and all matters incidental thereto. It identifies the beneficiaries who are entitled to succeed to the deceased's estate, and the extent of the benefits they are to receive, and determines the different rights and duties that persons may have in a deceased's estate. It forms part of private law.

Collateral is a term used in kinship to describe kin, or lines of kin, that are not in a direct line of descent from an individual. Examples of collateral relatives include siblings of parents or grandparents and their descendants. Collateral descent is contrasted with lineal descent: those related directly by a line of descent such as the children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, etc. of an individual. Though both forms are consanguineal, collaterals are neither ancestors nor descendants of a given person. In legal terminology, 'Collateral descendant' refers to relatives descended from a sibling of an ancestor, and thus a niece, nephew, or cousin.

References

  1. Glenda K. Harnad, J. D. and Karl Oakes, J. D., Corpus Juris Secundum, Descent and Distribution § 35 (2015)
  2. HEIR, Black's Law Dictionary (10th ed. 2014).
  3. For example, In re Auclair's Estate, 75 Cal. App. 2d 189, 170 P.2d 29 (1st Dist. 1945); Brawford v. Wolfe, 103 Mo. 391, 15 S.W. 426 (1891)
  4. "Issue and children in wills". willshub.com.au. BHS Legal. 17 March 2022 [25 August 2020]. Archived from the original on September 11, 2022. Retrieved 17 December 2021.