Before letters of administration or letters testamentary can issue, the person upon whose estate the administration is sought, must be dead. Any attempt at administration upon the estate of a living person is wholly void.6 The continued absence of a person for a considerable period of time during the lapse of which no word has come from him to those who might be expected to hear from him raises a prima facie case sufficient to warrant the appointment of an administrator or an executor. There is a presumption of death which arises from the long continued absence of such person, but this presumption may be overcome if the party presumed dead in fact lives; then the grant of the administration is void.7

3 Redmon vs. Collins, 4 Dev. L.

(N. C), 430. 4 Taylor vs. Bennett, 1 O. C. C, 95;

Elwell vs. Convention, 76 Tex., 514.

5 Byers vs. McAuley, 149 U. S., 608. 6 Thomas vs. The People, 107 Ill., 517.