Heirs’ Property – Taking the First Step

According to the Center for Heirs’ Property Preservation (CHPP), “Heirs’ property owners do not own a piece of the family land.  They own a ‘percentage’ of the whole property. That percentage is determined by where each heir falls in the family tree. The family tree is the first thing that the family has to create in order to begin the work of resolving heirs’ property.”

Gathering family information is the first step in resolving heirs’ property. The Heritage Library volunteers are using their experience in researching family histories to find and document family members as we work to assist local families experiencing heirs’ property issues. This is the first step in a long process but it is an essential step.

The Heritage Library has established partnerships with the Town of Hilton Head Island, the Gullah Geechee Land and Cultural Preservation Project, USCB and Lowcountry Gullah Foundation to make this project possible. We are now looking to expand the project so that assistance can be made available to clients throughout Beaufort County. Project expansion will be based on securing a referring agency and operational funding. Our end goal is to produce a family tree that documents all the information we can find so that our clients can begin the legal side of the process at no cost to the client.

If you have questions about this project please contact the Library at 843.686.6560 or info@heritagelib.org

For additional information:

Low Country Gullah Foundation

Farmland Access