Notes on Our Genealogy

When my sixth great-grandfather Jeremiah Shelton died in 1829 he left all of his possessions, including three slaves, to his children. But Jeremiah's widow Nancy had dower rights to a third of that estate during her lifetime. In her case that portion apparently included one of the three slaves, a young woman named Sylvia. When Nancy died in 1839 her dower portion reverted to the heirs, and that triggered a multi-year court battle for possession of Sylvia. Shelton et al vs Figg et al ( original document ) By the time Jeremiah died, almost all of Nancy and Jeremiah's children had moved away from the family home, which was a few miles outside of Morgantown, Kentucky, near the Sandy Creek branch of Big Muddy Creek ( map link ). The one remaining child was their daughter Sarah, who lived nearby with her husband Robert Figg and their children. The Figgs and Sylvia took care of the old couple as they entered the autumn of their years, including moving the widow Nancy into their home a...