Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in North Carolina

I would have to review the will. Obviously the will was written a long time ago and the lawyer may have used language that created problems.

The law previously provided that if you used magic language limiting an inheritance to "heirs of the body" meaning one's natural children, then only they could take, not adopted kids. However, that rule was repealed a long time ago and the trend now is to allow all children, both biological and validly adopted children, to take equally so there is no difference and no blood test is needed.

As for a DNA test, the only time this is required is in situations where a child is born out of wedlock, the parent dies without a will and paternity is not formally acknowledged. Usually this is the case but I have seen situations where a child dies as a dead milliionaire without a will and a father who was long since absent from the child's life suddenly appears to claim his share of the loot even though he never acknowledged paternity of the child or paid child support.

In either case, paternity can only be established by doing a DNA test. There are time limits -if someone has not come forward with a certain amount of time, then they are barred from taking,

What I suppose your grandfather meant (again, this is without seeing the will and I don't know if your grandfather's estaete is in NC, so my answer could change) is that his property was to go to his wife, if any, and children, and if one or more of the children died, to their children and so forth to great-grandchildren, etc.

Per stirpes is latin meaning by the branch. In the context of wills, here is an example:

If a man dies leaving two kids and one of the kids predeceases the man, but has 2 kids of his own, the 2 grandkids will take the share of their deceased parent such that the man's living child gets 50% and the man's 2 grandchildren would each get the remaining 50%, which they would share (each gets 25%).

A = grandparent

B & C = children of A

D & E = children of B (A's grandchildren)

B dies before A so when A dies without changing his will, C gets 50% and D & E split the other 50%.