Who counts as an heir in Texas when there is no will

What “heir” means, and when the estate passes

The Estates Code defines the word in § 22.015:

“Heir” means a person who is entitled under the statutes of descent and distribution to a part of the estate of a decedent who dies intestate. The term includes the decedent’s surviving spouse.

The estate of a person who dies intestate “vests immediately in the person’s heirs at law” (§ 101.001(b)). Section 201.103 says the estate to which an intestate had title at death “descends and vests in the intestate’s heirs in the same manner as if the intestate had been the original purchaser.” The one qualification stated in § 101.001(b) is § 101.051(b): the estate vests subject to payment of, and is still liable for, the decedent’s debts, except as exempted by law, and any court-ordered child support that was delinquent on the date of death.

So the statutes vest the estate in the heirs immediately on death. The text of those two sections does not make that depend on a filing or a court order. If letters of administration are issued, the administrator has the right to possession of the estate as it existed at the death, subject to the exceptions in § 101.051 (§ 101.003). The question of who the heirs are often comes up later, when someone has to pay them or buy from them.

Texas only, and only the text as it reads now

This page reads Texas statutes. Oklahoma has its own descent statute, and the descent chart on the home page runs both states. The sections here are quoted as they stand on the date checked. The Estates Code took effect January 1, 2014 (the statutes site marks these sections “eff. January 1, 2014”). Several sections quoted here have been amended since. The site’s “Amended by” notes show, among others, changes to § 22.004 and § 201.054 effective September 1, 2017, and to § 201.054 again effective September 1, 2023. Many mineral interests passed at a death well before any of those dates. This page does not say which version of the law governs an older death. The chart on the home page asks only which side of a cutoff date the death falls on, not the date itself, and an examiner or an attorney has to say what governs a particular death.

Who counts as a child

The Estates Code does not leave “child” to the dictionary. Its definition says a child “includes an adopted child,” whether the adoption came through a statutory procedure or through “an equitable adoption or acts of estoppel,” and that the term “does not include a child who does not have a presumed father unless a provision of this code expressly states that a child who does not have a presumed father is included” (§ 22.004). The sections that follow take the mother’s side and the father’s side, then adoption.

Through the mother

“For purposes of inheritance, a child is the child of the child’s biological or adopted mother” (§ 201.051(a)). Subsection (a) has one exception. If a child has intended parents under a gestational agreement validated under Subchapter I of Family Code chapter 160, the child is the child of the intended mother and not of the biological or gestational mother, unless the biological mother is also the intended mother.

Through the father

The father’s side has more conditions. Under § 201.052(a), a child is the child of the child’s biological father for inheritance if any one of these is true:

• the child was born under circumstances described by Family Code § 160.201. That section lists how a father-child relationship is established: an unrebutted presumption of paternity under § 160.204, an effective acknowledgment of paternity, an adjudication, adoption by the man, or the man’s consent to assisted reproduction by his wife. One ground for the presumption, in § 160.204(a)(1), is that the man is married to the mother of the child and the child is born during the marriage. Subsection (a) has four other grounds;
• the child was adjudicated to be the father’s child by court decree under Family Code chapter 160;
• the father adopted the child; or
• the father executed an acknowledgment of paternity under Subchapter D of Family Code chapter 160, or a similar statement properly executed in another jurisdiction.

A child who fits one of those, and the child’s issue, inherit from the child’s father and paternal kindred (§ 201.052(b)). A child with intended parents under a validated gestational agreement is the child of the intended father instead, unless the biological father is also the intended father (§ 201.052(a-1)).

A child who fits none of them may have another route. A person who “claims to be a biological child of the decedent and is not otherwise presumed to be a child of the decedent,” or who claims through such a child, may petition the probate court for a determination of right of inheritance from the decedent (§ 201.052(c)). If the court “finds by clear and convincing evidence that the purported father was the biological father,” the child “is treated as any other child of the decedent for purposes of inheritance” (§ 201.052(d)).

The section also says it “does not permit inheritance by a purported father of a child, recognized or not, if the purported father’s parental rights have been terminated” (§ 201.052(e)). That one runs the other way: it reads as a limit on a father inheriting from the child.

Section 201.053 has a rule, with conditions, for a buyer who relies on an affidavit of heirship that leaves out a child who is not a presumed child of the decedent and has not been found by a final court decree or judgment to be entitled to treatment as a child under § 201.052. The affidavit guide walks through it.

Adopted children

For descent and distribution, an adopted child “is regarded as the child of the adoptive parent or parents,” and the adopted child and the adopted child’s descendants inherit from and through the adoptive parents and their kindred “as if the adopted child were the natural child.” The adoptive parents and their kindred inherit from and through the adopted child the same way (§ 201.054(a)). The natural parents and their kindred “may not inherit from or through the adopted child,” but the adopted child inherits from and through the natural parents, “except as provided by Section 162.507(c), Family Code” (§ 201.054(b)).

That Family Code section sits in the subchapter on adoption of an adult. It says an adopted adult may not inherit from or through the adult’s biological parent, and a biological parent may not inherit from or through an adopted adult. So an adopted child keeps the right to inherit from the natural parents, and an adopted adult does not.

The section defines “adopted child.” It means a child adopted “through an existing or former statutory procedure,” or one “considered by a court to be equitably adopted or adopted by acts of estoppel” (§ 201.054(e)(1)). The second kind is listed apart from adoption through a statutory procedure. The statute’s words are “considered by a court,” and it does not list the facts that lead a court there.

Stepchildren and children raised in the home

Chapter 201 does not use the word stepchild, and it does not name a child who was raised in the household without being adopted among the people who inherit. The only language in the chapter that reaches a child adopted otherwise than through a statutory procedure is the equitable adoption and estoppel wording in § 201.054(e), just above. Whether a particular child’s facts fit it is for a court. Separately, § 203.002 says an affidavit of facts concerning the identity of a decedent’s heirs “may be in substantially the following form,” and paragraph 5 of that form has the affiant say the decedent “did not have or adopt any other children and did not take any other children into decedent’s home or raise any other children,” except as listed.

Children of a void or annulled marriage

“The issue of a marriage declared void or voided by annulment shall be treated in the same manner as the issue of a valid marriage” (§ 201.055).

Born before, or in gestation at, the death

No right of inheritance accrues to any person unless the person is born before, or is in gestation at, the time of the intestate’s death and survives for at least 120 hours.

Tex. Est. Code § 201.056

The same section adds two rules. A person is considered to be in gestation at the time of death if insemination or implantation occurs at or before the time of death. A person is presumed to be in gestation at that time if born before the 301st day after the date of death.

Chapter 121 says the survival rule from the other side. A person who does not survive a decedent by 120 hours “is considered to have predeceased the decedent” for several purposes, intestate succession among them, and the heirs are determined accordingly, “except as otherwise provided by this chapter” (§ 121.052). If the time of death of the decedent or of the person, or the times of death of both, cannot be determined, and the person’s survival for the required period cannot be established, the person is considered not to have survived (§ 121.053). The subchapter does not apply if applying it would result in the escheat of an intestate estate (§ 121.051).

How the shares fall when the tree has gaps

By persons, and through a parent who died first

Under § 201.101(a), relatives of the intestate “who stand in the first or same degree of relationship alone and come into the distribution” take “per capita, which means by persons.” If some of them are dead and some are living, each descendant of those who died is entitled to a distribution, and “each descendant inherits only that portion of the property to which the parent through whom the descendant inherits would be entitled if that parent were alive” (§ 201.101(b)).

Half brothers and sisters

If the inheritance from an intestate passes to the collateral kindred of the intestate and part of the collateral kindred are of whole blood and the other part are of half blood of the intestate, each of the collateral kindred who is of half blood inherits only half as much as that inherited by each of the collateral kindred who is of whole blood. If all of the collateral kindred are of half blood of the intestate, each of the collateral kindred inherits a whole portion.

Tex. Est. Code § 201.057

The section is written about collateral kindred of the intestate. It says nothing about the decedent’s own children.

Property from the father or from the mother

“A distinction may not be made, in regulating the descent and distribution of an estate of a person dying intestate, between property derived by gift, devise, or descent from the intestate’s father, and property derived by gift, devise, or descent from the intestate’s mother” (§ 201.102).

Gifts made during life

Property the decedent gave during life to a person who is an heir at the date of death counts against that heir’s share “only if” the decedent declared in a contemporaneous writing, or the heir acknowledged in writing, that it is an advancement, or the decedent’s writing or the heir’s written acknowledgment otherwise indicates the gift is to be considered in dividing the estate (§ 201.151(a)). The section says the same of property an heir received under certain nontestamentary transfers. An advanced gift is valued as of the earlier of the time the heir came into possession or enjoyment of it and the time of the decedent’s death (§ 201.151(b)). If the recipient does not survive the decedent, the property is not considered unless the decedent’s contemporaneous writing provides otherwise (§ 201.152).

Where a court comes in

Some of the questions above turn on a court. Among them are the petition of a claimed biological child (§ 201.052(c)) and the equitable adoption language (§ 201.054(e)). Another route is a proceeding to declare heirship, in which a court may determine “the persons who are a decedent’s heirs and only heirs” and their shares and interests (§ 202.001). Among the circumstances where a court may conduct one is a person who dies intestate owning or entitled to property in Texas with no administration of the estate in Texas (§ 202.002(1)). The judgment in such a proceeding must state the names of the heirs and their shares and interests (§ 202.201(a)). The affidavit guide sets that beside a recorded affidavit. Which way a particular family goes is a question for its attorney.

Side by side

Statute text as read on the state’s statutes site, which says it is current through the 89th Legislature, 2nd Called Session, 2025. Whether a given family’s facts fit a row is a legal question for the family’s attorney or a court.

Sources

Everything above comes from the texts below. The state’s statutes site runs as a script page, so the links go to the chapter page and its section anchor. Statute text was read there, and the site says it is current through the 89th Legislature, 2nd Called Session, 2025. The amendment dates come from the “Amended by” notes on that site.

1. Tex. Est. Code ch. 201, Descent and Distribution, §§ 201.001, 201.051 to 201.057, 201.101 to 201.103, 201.151 and 201.152. https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/ES/htm/ES.201.htm#201.052
   Intestate order, who inherits through a mother or father, adopted children, timing, half blood, shares, advancements. Opened September 29, 2026.
2. Tex. Est. Code ch. 22, Definitions, §§ 22.004 and 22.015. https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/ES/htm/ES.22.htm#22.004
   “Child” and “heir.” Opened September 29, 2026.
3. Tex. Est. Code ch. 101, Estate Assets in General, §§ 101.001, 101.003 and 101.051. https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/ES/htm/ES.101.htm#101.001
   Passage of an intestate estate at death, and the estate’s liability for debts. Section 101.003 covers the personal representative’s possession. Opened September 29, 2026.
4. Tex. Est. Code ch. 121, Survival Requirements, §§ 121.051 to 121.053. https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/ES/htm/ES.121.htm#121.052
   The 120-hour survival rule for intestate succession. Opened September 29, 2026.
5. Tex. Est. Code ch. 202, Determination of Heirship, §§ 202.001, 202.002 and 202.201, and ch. 203, Nonjudicial Evidence of Heirship, § 203.002. https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/ES/htm/ES.202.htm#202.001
   Chapter 203 is at the same address with ES.203 in place of ES.202. Cited here for the court proceeding and for paragraph 5 of the form in § 203.002. Opened September 29, 2026.
6. Tex. Fam. Code ch. 160, Uniform Parentage Act, §§ 160.201 and 160.204. https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/FA/htm/FA.160.htm#160.201
   How the father-child relationship is established, and the presumption of paternity. Opened September 29, 2026.
7. Tex. Fam. Code ch. 162, Subchapter F, Adoption of an Adult, § 162.507. https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/FA/htm/FA.162.htm#162.507
   Effect of an adult adoption on inheritance from biological parents. Opened September 29, 2026.