Case Studies

John W. Shearer was one of two children born to John L. Shearer of Kansas and Ethel Shaw of County Kildare, Ireland. The younger John was born in Highland Park, Michigan, in 1927. He died in Redlands, California, in 1998.

Helene Koch died in California in 1998. She was born to Austrian parents at the height of World War II. Helene never married nor had children. Her only sister died in Europe as a very young woman.

Many of our cases involve complex genealogies and interesting insights into history. Some of them also include convoluted legal issues. The combined estates of Filipp & Maria Schwlatsch and Franc Seme had all three.

Merle F. Gribble died in 1999 at the age of 93, the last survivor of her immediate family.  A records search indicated that Ezekiel Gribble, Merle's grandfather, was the father of 15 children and 96 grandchildren, making closest living family members the descendants of numerous cousins.  We identified 808 individual heirs of Merle Gribble, the largest heirship in our extensive history.