Wikipedia:Hier Property Edit-a-thon

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Heirs' property is a property that passes to family members by inheritance, usually without a will or without an estate planning strategy. It is typically created when land is passed from someone who dies without a will to those legally entitled to their property (spouse, children, others). However, even if the person who has passed had a will, they may still create heirs' property by leaving property to multiple heirs. When this happens, heirs do not own an individual lot; instead, they own the whole property together. Unless the heirs go to the appropriate administrative agency or court and have the title or deed changed to reflect the ownership, the land remains in the deceased's name. For heirs, this can cause a variety of problems.

While heirs’ property is predominant among African American landholders in the South and has been a significant driver of African American land loss in the United States, it is also an issue for Latinx communities in the Southwest, Indigenous communities on reservations, and white communities in Appalachia. Through this two-part program, we will outline the complexities of heirs’ property and examine tools and programs available to prevent further land loss.

In the morning, we will hear from keynote speaker, Mavis Gragg, on heirs’ property and her work as chief executive officer of HeirShares, followed by our partners from the Center for Agriculture and Food Systems at Vermont Law School and the National Agricultural Law Center. In the afternoon, you are welcome to attend an optional Wikipedia editing training session or begin editing pages and adding resources and information to various articles. During the brief training session, Wikipedia experts will be on hand to answer questions. This program is intended for information professionals, legal practitioners, and others working with stakeholders on estate planning and issues related to heirs’ property. Attendees may join the morning or afternoon sessions; full-day attendance is not required.

Wikipedia is an openly editable resource, meaning that you can improve the quality and accuracy of Wikipedia entries. As one of the web’s most visited reference sites, Wikipedia serves as a starting point for many individuals looking to learn about art, history, and science.

During this training, attendees of all experience levels will learn the basics of how to edit Wikipedia by updating related articles.

Register

livestream

Zoom link upon registration

when

October 12, 2021

10:00am-3:30pm Eastern

where

Virtual!

details

No Wikipedia editing experience is necessary; training will be provided. No background property law is required either.

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Create a Wikipedia account
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Find an article to edit!
Ask questions in the Zoom chat

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This is for use on the day of the event.

1) Select 'Sign in'

2) Scroll down on the page that follows and click 'Publish changes' or 'Save changes'.

Your username will automatically be added to the list of attendees.

Safe Space Policy

Safe Space Policy

Schedule

10:00-10:05 Welcome, Paul Wester, Director, USDA National Agricultural Library

10:05-10:45 Keynote Speaker – Mavis Gragg, Chief Executive Officer of HeirShares and Director, Sustainable Forestry and African American Land Retention Project (SFLR)

10:45-11:00 Rusty Rumley, Senior Staff Attorney, National Agricultural Law Center

11:00-11:15 Francine Miller, Senior Staff Attorney and Adjunct Faculty, Center for Agriculture and Food Systems, Vermont Law School

11:15-12:00 Lunch

12:00-12:35 Wikipedia Editing Training, with Jamie Flood of the USDA National Agricultural Library

12:35-12:40 Break

12:40-3:00 Editing time, questions and follow-up, one-on-one training as needed. Take breaks as needed. Shortly before 3:30, we will wrap up by reviewing our editing statistics

Speaker Information

Francine (Fran) Miller is a senior staff attorney and adjunct faculty member at the Center for Agriculture and Food Systems (CAFS) at Vermont Law School (VLS). She supervises students in the Food and Agriculture Clinic and leads a variety of projects. Fran focuses predominantly on farmland access, overseeing the expansion of CAFS's Farmland Access Legal Toolkit to better serve historically marginalized communities. She also assists private clients through CAFS and the clinic, particularly collaborative and community land ownership and business formation. Professor Miller received a B.A. in Psychology and Politics from Ithaca College and a J.D. from New York Law School, where she graduated Magna Cum Laude. Fran spent many years as a trademark and copyright lawyer, obtained her LLM in Food and Agriculture Law and Policy at VLS in 2017, and moved to Vermont from New York City in September 2019 to work at CAFS.

Rusty Rumley was born and raised on a family farm in Cogar, Oklahoma. He graduated magna cum laude from Oklahoma State University in 2004 with a B.S. in AgriBusiness and in 2007 earned his Juris doctorate from the University of Oklahoma. While attending the University of Oklahoma, he was an American Indian Law Review member and worked part-time for Oklahoma Farm Bureau Legal Foundation. After law school, Rusty earned his LL.M in Agricultural Law at the University of Arkansas. He is licensed to practice law in the states of Oklahoma and Michigan. Rusty has published law review articles discussing the future application of special-use valuation for inherited farmland, "right to farm" statutes, and private organizations' enforcement of animal cruelty statutes. Additionally, he has co-taught a course titled "Animals and Agricultural Production, Law and Policy" several times at the University of Oklahoma College of Law and most recently at the University of Nebraska College of Law and teaches an introduction to agricultural law course through the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food, & Life Sciences at the University of Arkansas. He is an adjunct faculty member in the University of Arkansas' Animal Science Department and the Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness Department.

Mavis Gragg is the Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of HeirShares and serves as the Director of the Sustainable Forestry and African American Lan Retention Project at the American Forest Foundation. In addition, she is the Chair of the North Carolina Parks and Recreation Authority and serves on the Board of Directors for Triangle Land Conservancy. Gragg grew up in Black Mountain, North Carolina. She graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a B.A. in Industrial Relations. She then went on to graduate from Pepperdine University Rick J. Caruso School of Law in 2002 with a Juris Doctor and Master of Dispute Resolution. In 2015, she opened Gragg Law Firm, PLLC, with the idea to focus on estate planning and heirs' property law after her own experiences with her family losing considerable property. Gragg has almost 20 years of experience in real estate, conflict resolution, estate planning, and probate.

Presentation

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