If an uncle dies with a will in California, and his nephew is an heir named in his will. What if the nephew dies before any proceeds of will are distributed, and is his wife entilted to any proceeds of the will ?

That is a very interesting question. I am eager to see the thoughts on this one. It seems like it could get very confusing becausing technically since the nepher is no longer living, he can not have a wife, and I do not know if the deceased can inherit anything?

Would it have to go to the nephews estate? In old wills, I have found doing genealogy work, I see it written out so that the money would be left to the nephew and his heirs.

As long as the uncle died before the nephew, then the proceeds of the inheritance get paid to the nephew's estate. Whoever is the beneficiary of the nephew's estate would get the inheritance. However, if the nephew died BEFORE the uncle, then he would no longer be a beneficiary of the estate unless the bequest stated; "my nephew John or his heirs".