[ssteele14]

Who can claim ownership to a 40 acre plot of land that has been passed down over several family generation and the ownership has been dilluted down to just fractions? One particular family line has always paid the taxes and their name is on the title put with the additive of etal. The spread of time is over 100 years and it's most likely that any distant cousins doen't even realize the property exists but even if they did, their individual share would be no more than 1/24 percent. No mention of the specifics to the land is stated in any of the great-uncles wills. The land is in a wet-land area, is land locked and has never been used for anything other than some marsh hay harvesting many years ago or some hunting today. Is it possible to do some type of title claim to remove th "etal" from the title and have it re-stated to the family that has been paying the taxes all these years?

[Fr_Chuck]

NO , one person can claim ownership, everyone who has a share, even a 1/100 share still has ownership.
Plus liability, the person taking care of it, and paying the taxes need to be billing the family members for their share of the upkeep and of the taxes and of the insurance.

If someone gets hurt on the property, and sues for a million dollar, that person with 1/24th owner ship will owe 1/24th of that million dollars.

[ScottGem]

You need a local real estate attorney to handle this. It may be possible under laws of adverse possession to unify title. Or it may be necessary to contact all possible heirs and buy them out.