In the Hawkins case, the probate of the estate is in the final stages, said Katherine Duke, the director of the Hawkins foundation.
Less than two months ago, Ms. Worthington changed her will, to avoid probate in the case of her death, and granted custody to the Chases, The Cape Cod Times reported.
Even Southern states that outlawed mixed-race marriages have recognized many of them when the couple resided elsewhere, for example when the case involved the probate of an estate, said Andrew Koppelman, a constitutional law expert at Northwestern University Law School.
Surrogate's Court hears cases involving the probate of wills, the administration of estates and adoptions.
Mr. Treat was judge of probate in New Hampshire from 1958-83.
The tasks of probate and of appointing administrators had thus to be performed by other agencies.
Not all estates need to go through probate, with around half of deaths leading to an application for a grant of probate in England and Wales.
But reports of probate dragging on for six months or longer are not uncommon.
In that year, the society was dissolved, under terms of the Court of Probate and Matrimonial Causes acts of 1857.
Her uncle Joe Noonan was a prominent lawyer who was judge of probate.
