Backstory: In order to get the last vacation time that Bob had accrued before his death, I need to file a legal document showing who his heirs are. It needs to include any siblings of his that are still alive. I knew of one sister, but when I was trying to find her, I found that he had another sister and a brother that I never knew about. :eek:
So, I’ve got three names, locations that are 11 years old, and I can’t find them on Canada411.com.
Any ideas on where to look?
I have had good luck with similar queries using records that are available through Ancestry.com. (Voting lists, phone directories etc.) I have the benefit of having a full access membership.
“Classmates” was a thing long before Facebook. That can be useful.
Facebook is still pretty good especially for middle aged people. Try searching lastname+town and see if there might be someone else related on a social media that you can reach out and ask if they know anything. LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram are also good as people may say, “Stayed with Margie Johnson when we drove through Alberta”. lastname+town brings up high school sports scores for all of my nieces and nephews for instance even though my brother and SIL are not anywhere on Social media. Blockshopper (although I don’t know in canada) and even some counties in the U.S. have property tax offices where I can look up public records by last name.
Libraries in towns are often good places too. They will/may have a phone book or two around even from a decade back.
It is incredibly surprising to not have anyone else leave a social media mark for people across one of the platforms.
Try also last name + province in case they are in a suburb.
(Or, just ask someone from Canada. You never know, Americans are always asking us “Do you know Joe Smith? He’s from Canada too…”)
Please tell me that’s a joke. That’s like one of those ridiculously racist things people supposedly did before the civil rights movement and alter campaigns burned away a shit-ton of ignorance.
I don’t understand the backstory. How can you make use of vacation time of a deceased individual? Are you looking to get Bob’s employer to pay his salary in lieu of the unused vacation, and then to inherit that salary?
Why can’t you just tick the box that says “No living heirs”? As far as you know, he does not have any.
Unfortunately, it’s not a joke. There are some people who have no idea of the population and geographical size of Canada. They DO think we all know each other and it’s not just Americans.
My favourites are tourists who come to Canada expect to visit multiple big cities in a week. When you explain to them that you could drive northwest from Ottawa for ~24 hours and not even get out of Ontario they’re shocked and disappointed they won’t see most of the country.
When one mentions military service an awful lot of people will exclaim, “Ooh! I had a cousin who was a corporal in the army; maybe you knew him!”
Ask yourself two questions: how much money is at stake? And how much is it going to cost you?
Pretty much the same idea…
I don’t get it. Either you are his legal heir, or someone else is (i.e. you two not married or state does not recognize “common law”). If you are the heir and no others are available, who cares? Most states AFAIK only give mandatory (absent a will) inheritance rights to spouse (perhaps including live-in companion) and immediate offspring - typically, wife gets half, children split half. Siblings only count if none of the above exist.
Regardless, any money owed Bob for any reason whatever is now owed his estate. Absent a will, many states have a public executor(?) for intestates. The estate (executor) will be entitled to go after the employer for any outstanding wages or benefits accrued. The boss does not get out of paying Bob’s accrued vacation just because he died, unless the employment laws in your state are particularly primitive.
The scenario you suggest makes no sense.
Because that accrued vacation time is money. If the money required to collect it exceed the the money to be collected then it’s just not worth it.
There is probably a process where you can post it in the newspaper a few times and then just move on, usually you just have to show you made an attempt. Obviously you have to follow the rules for your area but I don’t think internet stalking is a requirement.
I suppose if the employer paid cash, then it might be an issue, they don’t want to hand over cash to someone else. But if he pays a cheque or into a bank, that becomes part of the estate; an employer can’t refuse to pay what is already earned just because the person is dead.
[QUOTE Unfortunately, it’s not a joke. There are some people who have no idea of the population and geographical size of Canada. They DO think we all know each other and it’s not just Americans.
My favourites are tourists who come to Canada expect to visit multiple big cities in a week. When you explain to them that you could drive northwest from Ottawa for ~24 hours and not even get out of Ontario they’re shocked and disappointed they won’t see most of the country.[/QUOTE]
True story - my parents were friends with an expat Brit family (we lived in Ottawa at the time) and the Brits, by that time, understood the distances involved. However, they had friends visiting from the UK who thought that they would be able “to go to Toronto for the afternoon.”
abc
Bob was in his early 60s, and I believe the youngest of the 4 siblings. They are definitely old, if they’re even alive. I’ve tried Facebook, but I am very dubious about the other sites you mentioned. (Blockshopper is only U.S.)
I’ll try the libraries though. Falkland B.C. even looks small enough that the librarian might have known the one sibling personally.
He was hourly and had 120 hours of unused vacation time when he died. His company told me this specifically, and that they would pay this to me, but only if I provided a particular legal document.
Partially because it’s a legal notarized form, and I’m a little superstitious(?) about lying on it. If I just can’t find his siblings, then I’ll have to go to a lawyer for advice.
Also, I feel like I should let his sister know if I can (the one that I knew about). And she might want something of his.
We get something like that in Texas. Not quite such a large scale, but there’s periodic stories of people who hire a cab in Houston to get to Dallas (hint: it’s not cheap)
BTDT. Somewhere around $1000 and I’ve already spent $250. This is why I’m trying to find these people via the internet, and not just hiring a PI in Canada to do the legwork.
Which is what 3 different lawyers have said, even the lawyer who specializes in estate law (the other two are a cousin and a friend).
Problem is that it is probably not worth going to court over, so I do what they tell me to do. They want what is called a “Small Estate Affidavit” and it requires (notarized!) signatures of existing siblings.
Are you a lawyer in the State of Texas? Do you want to represent me, for less than ~$300? I’m just telling y’all why I’m trying to find these people.
I think your best bet would be to claim that all of your husbands property was community property and that you are the sole heir unless you and him were married recently of he brought a large amount of real property into the marriage.
According to this pdf checklist(table on pages 5 and 6) the only way a sibling could be considered an heir is if your husband had separate real property acquired prior to the marriage.
By the way that .pdf had a lot of bad things to say about the difficulty in getting “small estate affidavits” granted. I’d be going after your husbands company through other channels if I could.
ETA: The links are funky, just google Travis county small estate affidavit checklist.
sitchensis - unless you’re willing and legally able to help me … you’re not helping. I don’t want legal advice, I want help locating my in-laws.
Seconding FamilySearch.org. It’s free. I have found all sorts of interesting genealogical tidbits on it (scores of relatives on the 1940 Census index, my great-grandfather’s WWI draft registration card, etc.).
Also Ancestry.com is awesome, and last I checked, anyone could get a free 2-week trial subscription. Many libraries also have memberships that patrons can use.
However, because of privacy issues, you may find a limited amount of information regarding living people.
Is it a small enough town that there was one high school? What about high school yearbooks? Are they a thing in Canada?
In fact, talk to your local librarian, generally. He/she may have all kinds of other ideas.
How much of a hurry are you in? If Bob was born in Canada and lived most of his life in the U.S. and became a permanent resident at some point, his immigration file may list his siblings. If you don’t have any of those documents handy, it’s likely going to take at least a few months to get them.
ETA: yep, Ancestry.com still does free trials.
I could kind of understand that from Europeans. Stuff is ridiculously close together. John Pinette (comedian) once told a story about working in France, and howhe was surprised to learn that Italy was only a 2-4 hour drive away. They drove down for an afternoon.
Here in the Americas, that’s the distance between where you actually live and the closest city non-locals might know about.
I grew up a few hours from there and my aunt lived in a nearby town for a long while. She may know someone in Falkland. DM me if you want me to check with her.
NB