Py producing a legal document showing inheritance, such as a will. With out such proof, there's no way to tell which of potentially many decendents has the legal right to the object. You could be proactive by attempting to contact the executor of the estate and establishing a list of heirs. Then contact each heir and ask them to deed the object to the institution. I have done this successfully with up to 6 heirs. It required me to circulate a lot of paperwork but it was worth it to clean up the loan. Best of luck, Diane Gutenkauf On Fri, 11 Mar 2005 11:44:35 -0500, Susannah West <[log in to unmask]> wrote: <snip> >A related question: at the John Rankin House in Ripley, Ohio, there are >several items that were loaned by a descendant sometime in the early 1960s. > However, there doesn't seem to be any loan documentation. Should a >descendant show up wanting these items returned, how would he/she prove >ownership? > >Susannah West >Ripley, Ohio > ========================================================= Important Subscriber Information: The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes). If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).