Jay Wrote

 Family and Inheritance:  The Wilkinson Case My paternal grandfather and name-sake,  J. Edgar Wilkinson, who died soon after I was born, was a private firm lawyer practicing in Philadelphia’s Orphans’ Court.  We call that probate court in Minnesota and it addresses disputes over the deads’ estates and wills and oversees trusts and guardianships.  I was told he spent a lot of time seeing to it that the needs of widows and orphans were attended to.  But I know nothing about his practice save the following story I have pieced together. In a case where he was appointed guardian of an older man, Brooks, there was much at stake.  It was alleged in the Philadelphia court filing that led to J. Edgar Wilkinson’s appointment, that Brooks was "feeble minded and unable to properly care for his property; that he was the victim of designing persons; that large sums of money had been secured and extorted from him …”  The guardianship, with its first stop in Phil...

   December 2023 I write to you from Aotearoa/New Zealand as Karen and I are summering here just before the “winter” holidays. It's an upside down world! I know that Minnesota is going to have a brown Christmas but this is something different - the semi-tropics with Sara, Don, Lily, Lachlann and many Harris relations.  We’ve been in Auckland for a week and today, the 23rd, we drove to Hawke Bay, a vacation spot.  Next week we go on to another place for more R&R. Early in January we’ll attend the interment of the kids’ Kiwi great-grandparents' ashes before returning to the metropolis.   Karen and I visited here 4 years ago, Sara and crew moved here 20 or so months ago.  Lily likely remembers visiting her great-grandmother during our 2019 visit and we’ve learned some interesting family history from Don’s aunt, Sandy.  Murder most foul!  Among other things.   It was a full day, door-to-door, to get here. 17 hours + in two flights w...