The best known but least understood title to land, is that which the law raises for the heir upon the death of the ancestor. It is called title by descent, and though for practical purposes is regarded as a new title springing from the death of the ancestor, and when asserted must be so proved, yet in reality it is but a continuation of the ancestor's title, which the law casts upon the heir at the moment of the ancestor's death. The heir is regarded in law as a legal appointee to receive the title, and this appointment he can neither disclaim nor avoid.43 Whenever the death of any person is shown, until rebutted, the presumption is that he died intestate, that is, without having made a will, and that his heirs take his estate under the laws of descent.

43 2 Black, Com., 201; Warvelle, Real Prop., 144; Moore vs. Chandler, 59 111., 466.

Under the English system of abstracting, a descent is shown by a pedigree, supported by certificates of births, deaths and marriages, inserted in the order of their date. Family records, when shown to have been regularly compiled, are not without weight in the United States, and are frequently resorted to for proof of heirship in the administration of estates and trial of disputed land titles, but while they, with other evidence will be received by courts to prove pedigree and establish rights of succession, they do not constitute such evidence, save as they appear in court proceedings by way of recital, as is required in compiling an abstract, and examiners, as a rule, do not attempt to introduce them.

The usual method of showing a descent in the United States is by an abstract of the settlement of the decedent's estate. This should disclose the jurisdiction of the Court, appointment of administrator, proof of heirship and adjudication. This is sufficient to show the descent, but in order that the title of the heirs may not be obscured by latent defects or creditors' liens, the inventory, payment of claims, and final report and discharge of the administrator should also be shown.

It will frequently happen that the ancestor was a non-resident, and that administration was had upon his estate at the place of his late domicile. When such is the fact an exemplification of such proceedings should be procured and filed in the registry of deeds of the county where the land in question is situate. This will be sufficient to show descent, provided a finding of heirship appears, but in order to make an indefeasible title an ancillary administration should be had. The chief object of such ancillary administration is to bar the claims of creditors, and if the property is valuable this step should always be taken.

It is competent for all the heirs to an estate, if of age, to settle and pay the debts of the estate and to make partition of the property among themselves, without any administration; and neither creditors nor debtors of the estate have a right to complain. Few titles, however, are to be accepted with greater caution than those asserted and purported to be conveyed by persons claiming to be the heirs at law of the person last seized, in the absence of full compliance with prescribed regulations concerning the descent and distribution of intestate estates. A title resting on no better foundation than a deed of this character, unless reinforced by the statute of limitations, is entitled to little consideration, and is liable to be defeated at any time before the bar of the statute has interposed. Nor can the purchaser know, unless personally cognizant of the facts, that all the heirs have united in the conveyance, or that they are qualified to convey; or that a widow's dower may not greatly depreciate the value of the property thus acquired. Sometimes, in a case of this kind, affidavits are resorted to to prove heirship, death of ancestor, etc., in which event they should be well authenticated as well as positive in their averments. But however well framed they may be they afford evidence of the lowest order only.