Heir research
Records and genealogical research that documents who the heirs of an estate appear to be, with a source cited for every name, written for an attorney or a court to review. We do not decide who inherits. Only a court can do that.
What this is
An estate cannot be settled until the personal representative knows who has to be notified. This is the paperwork behind that answer.
A written report. It contains a family chart, a citation for every name on that chart, references to the documents relied on, and a plain statement of anything the record could not establish. It is written so that the estate’s attorney, the Register of Wills or the Orphans’ Court can check every line without taking our word for anything.
That last part is the whole point. A list of names with no sources behind it is worth very little to a personal representative who has to certify that notice went to the right people. A sourced chart can be handed to a lawyer and used.
Nothing we write settles anybody’s rights. Where there is a will, the will governs and its interpretation is a legal question. Where there is not, 20 Pa.C.S. § 2102 and § 2103 decide, and applying them to a particular family is again a legal question. Our report tells you what the records show. What follows from that is for an attorney to advise on and for the court to decide.
Because the intestate rules are not what families expect. A surviving spouse does not automatically take everything: where any of the children are not also the spouse’s children, the spouse takes one half only. The order in § 2103 then runs through issue, parents, the issue of parents, grandparents, and uncles and aunts with their children and grandchildren, and stops there. Pennsylvania has no laughing heirs, so a relative further out than that takes nothing at all. Working out which rung of that ladder an estate lands on is a documentary exercise before it is a legal one. The guide to dying without a will sets out each case.
Register of Wills and Orphans’ Court dockets, which often contain a prior estate in the same family. Recorded deeds, which show how property moved and who signed. Birth, marriage and death records. Census returns. Published estate notices. Cemetery and church registers, which frequently survive where civil records do not. Newspaper notices, which are useful mostly because they name people. None of this is exotic. It is ordinary public record work done carefully and written down.
For a small, settled family you very likely can. Court dockets are public, deed indexes are open at the county recorder, and vital records and census returns are widely available online. It costs time rather than money. Where it becomes genuinely hard is older generations, remarriages, adoptions, changes of name, and any branch of the family that left the Commonwealth.
Work about where a particular person is now. That is a separate and licensed field in Pennsylvania, and it is not what this is. We also do not approach heirs on your behalf, negotiate with them, or ask anyone to sign anything before they have been told what the research found. If an estate needs any of that, say so early and we will tell you plainly that you need someone else.
How it works
One of these has a date set by court rule. The rest take as long as the records take.
4 steps in total
1 deadlines that cost money if missed
First
Names, dates, the county the person lived in, whether there is a will, and whatever the family believes about who is related to whom. Family memory is a starting point for the research, never the conclusion of it.
Then
Register of Wills and Orphans’ Court dockets, recorded deeds, birth, marriage and death records, census returns, published notices, cemetery and church registers, and prior estate files. Every name that goes into the chart is tied to the document it came from.
At the end
A family chart, a citation for every line on it, and a plain note wherever the record is thin or contradicts itself. It is written to be read by the estate’s attorney and, if it comes to it, by the court.
By three months
DeadlineNotice goes to everyone entitled within three months of the grant, with certification filed within ten days after that. Documented research is what the personal representative relies on to know who that notice has to reach.
Pa. O.C. Rule 10.5
You keep the report either way.
Being straight with you
This part of the industry has a poor reputation and it earned it. So here is the boundary, stated plainly.
We document who the heirs appear to be, with a source for every name
We do not determine who legally inherits. Only a court can do that, and nothing we produce is a determination of anyone’s rights.
We work from records that already exist
We do not take on work about where a particular person is now. That is a separate, licensed field in Pennsylvania. If an estate needs it, you need somebody licensed to do it, and it is not us.
We hand you the file, and your attorney gets the same file
We are not a law firm and a report is not legal advice. We do not file anything for an estate and we do not appear before the Orphans’ Court.
We tell you where the record is thin
We do not fill gaps with assumptions. Where a line cannot be documented, the report says so in as many words rather than rounding it up into a conclusion.
Checked against 20 Pa.C.S. Ch. 21 on .
Common questions
The court. A personal representative works out who to notify, and the Orphans’ Court settles it if anyone disputes the answer. What we produce is documentation for that process: a chart, and a record behind every name on it. It is evidence for somebody else to weigh, not a ruling, and we will never describe it as one.
Not necessarily. Under 20 Pa.C.S. § 2102 the spouse takes the entire estate only where there are no surviving children or grandchildren and no surviving parent. Where there is no issue but a surviving parent, the spouse takes the first $30,000 plus half the balance. Where all the children are also the spouse’s children, the same first $30,000 plus half the balance.
Where any of the children are not the spouse’s children, the spouse takes one half only and there is no $30,000. Blended families are caught by this constantly, and it is the single most common reason a family’s expectation and the statute part company.
In the order set by 20 Pa.C.S. § 2103: issue, then parents, then the issue of parents, then grandparents, then uncles and aunts and their children and grandchildren. Pennsylvania stops there. There are no laughing heirs, so a distant cousin outside that list takes nothing.
Where nobody in the statute survives, Act 50 of 2025 changed the destination. For deaths from 23 January 2026 an heirless intestate estate passes to an endowed community fund at the community foundation serving the municipality where the person lived, then the school district, then the county, before escheating to the Commonwealth.
A family chart, a citation for every line on it, copies or references for the documents relied on, and a written note of anything that could not be established from the record. If two sources disagree, the report shows both rather than picking the tidier one.
For a straightforward family, often yes. Register of Wills and Orphans’ Court dockets are public, recorded deeds are indexed at the county recorder, and vital records and census returns are widely available. It takes patience rather than special access. Where it gets difficult is older records, name changes, remarriages, adoptions, and any branch that left Pennsylvania.
No. We research records and hand the file to you. We do not take on work about where a particular person is now, we do not approach anyone on your behalf, and we do not ask anybody to sign an agreement before they are told what was found. If an estate needs someone who is licensed for that kind of work in Pennsylvania, that is a different service and a different person.
Tell us who died, which county they lived in, and what is worrying you most. If the answer is that you need a probate attorney rather than us, we will say so.
Free, and there is no obligation afterwards.