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Albert Bates was a farmer in southern Ohio. In the 1920's he
legally adopted a nine year old boy from an orphanage. The little
boy did not work hard enough to suit Farmer Bates, so the farmer
arranged to return the boy to the orphanage. Farmer Bates died in
the 1980's with no will, no spouse and no children. Josh Butler
& Company, Inc. obtained the orphanage records proving that
the farmer's adoption of the boy was never retracted and that the
boy is, therefore, the only heir of Farmer Bates. The 'little boy',
located by Josh Butler & Company, Inc., is now retired from
a lifetime of work in the steel mills of Gary, Indiana. He remembers
his brief stay as the son of Farmer Bates and his own sadness (and
relief!) at returning to the orphanage. He remained in the orphanage
until he was 18 years old.
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| An attorney handling the Estate of one Agnes Joppa
had what he thought to be a complete family tree, based on information
provided by the family. We were asked to double-check the information.
Our research indicated that there might be one more cousin unaccounted
for by the family. The trail took us to Roswell, New Mexico where
the front page of the Daily Record, Feb. 11, 1930, recounted, (in
part), "Ben Joppa is gone and no more will his sunny disposition
radiate to those who knew and understood him best, those who today
have written his faults upon the sands and his virtues deep into the
stone tablets of their memories.... those who knew and loved him will
know that behind it all there was a temptation too great for human
will to withstand." The story behind the story: Ben Joppa was
a cashier at his uncles' bank, embezzled, was caught and committed
suicide.... to such shame of the family that they deny him entirely.
We located Ben Joppa's two children who, the family's feeling notwithstanding,
were due to inherit from Cousin Agnes. |
It was 1935 when Evelyn Warfield, then in her early thirties, wrote
a will leaving her estate to various friends. To her half brother,
she left exactly one dollar. Evelyn had no children or other siblings
and, to the best recollection of friends and neighbors, no contact
whatsoever with her estranged half-brother. In fact, his existence
would have been completely unknown except for the will Evelyn prepared
sixty years before her death. Only an unsigned copy of this will
was ever found. While inadmissable, it did name the half brother.
From this single clue Josh Butler & Company, Inc. located the
heirs of Evelyn Warfield: The three children of the predeceased
half brother. Along with the modest inheritance they received, these
nieces and nephew learned for the first time of their father's half
sister, of whom he had never spoken a word.
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