Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Alabama

Per Stirpes means "by the root". It is not usually associated with a testamentary bequest to a spouse. It is typically used when leaving a bequest to a child of the decedent. That way, if a child of a decedent should also die, and if that child had children, the children would only divide among them what their parent would have gotten, not share equally with other surviving siblings of their deceased parent.