- descent
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de·scent n: transmission or devolution of the estate of a person who has died without a valid will compare distribution
Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of Law. Merriam-Webster. 1996.
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I
(declination) noun
change from higher to lower, comedown, coming down, downrush, droop, drop, falling, going down, inclination downward, lapse, settlement, sinking, subsidence
II
(lineage) noun
ancestry, birth, birthright, blood, bloodline, breed, clan, derivation, dynasty, extraction, family tree, filiation, genealogy, heredity, heritage, kin, line, line of ancestors, origin, parentage, paternity, pedigree, race, stock, strain
associated concepts: ancestors, collateral descent, descendants, line of descent, right and interest by descent, title by descent
III
index
affiliation (bloodline), ancestry, birth (lineage), blood, bloodline, decline, derivation, family (common ancestry), heritage, lineage, origin (ancestry), parentage, paternity, posterity, race, succession
Burton's Legal Thesaurus. William C. Burton. 2006
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n.Family origin; heredity; the transmission of property and goods by inheritance.
The Essential Law Dictionary. — Sphinx Publishing, An imprint of Sourcebooks, Inc. Amy Hackney Blackwell. 2008.
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automatic transmission of citizenship for one generation: British Nationality Act 1981. Descent may be traced through either parent. Parents who are British citizens by descent cannot normally transmit their citizenship to children born overseas, unless working for the Crown or some similar service or for a Community institution within the European Union.
Collins dictionary of law. W. J. Stewart. 2001.
- descent
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The passing of estate property through inheritance, either by law or through estate planning — as opposed to acquisition of property through other means, such as purchase.Category: Wills, Trusts & Estates
Nolo’s Plain-English Law Dictionary. Gerald N. Hill, Kathleen Thompson Hill. 2009.
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n. The transfer of real estate by inheritance, whether by will or intestacy.See also distribution, succession.
Webster's New World Law Dictionary. Susan Ellis Wild. 2000.
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Hereditary succession. Succession to the ownership of an estate by inheritance, or by any act of law, as distinguished from purchase. Title by descent is the title by which one person, upon the death of another, acquires the real estate of the latter as an heir at law. The title by inheritance is in all cases called descent, although by statute law the title is sometimes made to ascend. The division among those legally entitled thereto of the real property of intestates.
Dictionary from West's Encyclopedia of American Law. 2005.
- descent
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Hereditary succession. Succession to the ownership of an estate by inheritance, or by any act of law, as distinguished from purchase. Title by descent is the title by which one person, upon the death of another, acquires the real estate of the latter as an heir at law. The title by inheritance is in all cases called descent, although by statute law the title is sometimes made to ascend. The division among those legally entitled thereto of the real property of intestates.
Short Dictionary of (mostly American) Legal Terms and Abbreviations.
- descent
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n.the rules of inheritance established by law in cases in which there is no will naming the persons to receive the possessions of a person who has died. The rules of descent vary somewhat from state to state and will usually be governed by the law of the state in which the deceased party lived. Depending on which relatives survive, the estate may go all or in part to the surviving spouse, and down the line from a parent to children (or if none survive, to grandchildren), or up to surviving parents, or collaterally to brothers and sisters. If there are no survivors among those relatives, then aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces and nephews may inherit, depending on their degree of kinship (closeness of family relationship), state laws of descent and distribution, or whether the deceased person lived in a community property state, in which the wife has a survivorship right to community property.See also: community property, degree of kinship, descent and distribution, inheritance, intestate, succession
Law dictionary. EdwART. 2013.
