2030 TESTAMENTAY LAW. [ART. 93

1888, art. 93, sec. 229. 1860, art. 93, sec. 229. 1795, ch. 55.
1831, ch. 315, sec. 14.

233. A recess of the orphans' court shall be deemed and
taken to be not only such days as they may not hold a court,
but also such parts or portions of a day as they may not be in
actual session; if the orphans' court shall not meet on a day
fixed for its meeting, the register shall adjourn the court from
day to day until a meeting shall be had according to law.

Ibid. sec. 230. 1860, art. 93, sec. 230. 1798, ch 101, sub-ch. 15,sec 1.

1896, ch. 246.

234. The court shall have full power to take probate of
wills, grant letters testamentary and of administration, direct
the conduct and settling the accounts of executors and admin-
istrators, superintend the distribution of the estates of intes-
tates, secure the rights of orphans and legatees, and to admin-
ister justice in all matters relative to the affairs of deceased per-
sons; and also of persons who by their uninterrupted absence
unheard of for above seven years are supposed to be dead;
provided, that when any will or codicil shall be presented for
probate, or application shall be made for letters testamentary,
or of administration upon the estate of a person so absent and
unheard of for above seven years, the person presenting such
will or codicil, or making application for letters, as aforesaid,
shall file a written petition, under oath, setting forth the time
when and place where absentee was last heard of by his family
or friends; that diligent inquiry has been made among the
family, relatives and friends of such absentee; and that adver-
tisement and inquiry by letters or otherwise have been made
at the most likely place of his last residence, and that no
information by any of these means has been obtained of such
absentee since the date set forth in the petition, which must
be above seven years prior to the date of the petition, and that
the applicant verily believes such absentee to be dead, where-
upon the court shall order notice, by publication, to be given
in one or more newspapers, stating that a will "or codicil pur-
porting to be the will or codicil of such absentee had been
presented for probate, or that application had been made for
letters testamentary or of administration upon the estate of
such absentee, as the case may be, and warning such absentee
to appear on or before the day fixed in such order, and show
cause why the will or codicil should not be probated, and
letters testamentary granted thereon, or letters of administra-
tion granted, if there be no will; and such notice shall be pub-