{"id":528,"date":"2026-05-07T19:32:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T19:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/therecordlady.com\/members\/?p=528"},"modified":"2026-06-29T11:34:56","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T11:34:56","slug":"lareina-rule-1902-1973-probate-record-provides-clue-to-answer-whats-in-a-name-mystery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/therecordlady.com\/members\/2026\/05\/07\/lareina-rule-1902-1973-probate-record-provides-clue-to-answer-whats-in-a-name-mystery\/","title":{"rendered":"LaReina Rule (1902-1973): Probate Record Provides Clue to Answer “What’s In A Name” Mystery"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

We often open books to find answers. I wasn’t able to get past the copyright before I started asking questions about La Reina Rule’s book What’s In A Name?<\/em>. The front cover shows the authors as La Reina Rule and (who is now known to be her husband ) William K. Hammond. La Reina and William died in 1973–so close in dates that they are buried in one grave at Forest Lawn at Hollywood Hills, California. The book shows a copyright date which is the same year as their deaths, but it was not La Reina nor her husband who held the copyright to the book. The copyright was held by Morton E. Feiler. The answer to Feiler’s identity lies somewhere between the title of the book and in the probate settlements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When William K. Hammond died La Reina became his heir. When La Reina died her only child, Wilma, became her only heir.<\/span>1<\/sup><\/a><\/span> Wilma inherited what her mother had inherited. La Reina’s estate included “Royalty receipts and all revenues from…publication of decedent’s book Surnames of America<\/em>” (see page 6). The cover and title page of What’s In A Name?<\/em> shows “Surnames of America” as the book’s subtitle. The settlement shows Morton Feiler was to receive notice of the settlement, but there is no further mention of Feiler in the file. Feiler appears in Los Angeles newspapers as an attorney involved in entertainment cases.<\/span>2<\/sup><\/a><\/span> Feiler may have been Wilma’s attorney or a representative of Pyramid Books, the publisher of What’s In A Name?<\/em>. Wilma is deceased and Pyramid Books is no longer in business. Either answer would mean he needed to know about the probate settlement in order to direct royalty payments to Wilma.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For genealogists, probate records are invaluable for several reasons. This settlement confirms La Reina’s full legal name, her only heir, and the assets she owned at death \u2014 including real property and intellectual property. The royalty receipts establish that What’s In A Name?<\/em> was still generating income in 1975, suggesting continued commercial relevance after La Reina’s death. The inclusion of Feiler in the record suggest his name appears in the book because the book was published after her death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The La Reina Rule article, “Edith ‘La Reina’ Rule (1902-1973): Hollywood Psychic and Genealogist,” will be featured in the upcoming Kinship Papers, Vol. 2. Subscribe to TheRecordLady.com<\/a> to receive updates on publication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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FEATURED IMAGE: CoPilot AI, illustration, 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We often open books to find answers. I wasn’t able to get past the copyright before I started asking questions about La Reina Rule’s book What’s In A Name?. The front cover shows the authors as La Reina Rule and (who is now known to be her husband ) William K. Hammond. La Reina and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":537,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-container-style":"default","site-container-layout":"default","site-sidebar-layout":"default","disable-article-header":"default","disable-site-header":"default","disable-site-footer":"default","disable-content-area-spacing":"default","footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[6,7],"class_list":["post-528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-probate","tag-california","tag-la-reina-rule"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/therecordlady.com\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/therecordlady.com\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/therecordlady.com\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therecordlady.com\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therecordlady.com\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=528"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/therecordlady.com\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":582,"href":"https:\/\/therecordlady.com\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528\/revisions\/582"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therecordlady.com\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/therecordlady.com\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therecordlady.com\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therecordlady.com\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}