I just found something very interesting concerning members of my family in Shelby county in 1818. Edvin Alexander and Phebe Mullikin Alexander had two boys: Edvin M. Alexander and James M. Alexander. They were apparently poor as church mice. Sometime in that year, Edvin and Phebe were separated according to a court document and were unable to care for the boys....so they were bound as indentured workers to a man named James Miles that also lived in Shelby County at the time in order to be taught how to be a "housejoiner." According to the court document, it almost sounds like the boys (Edvin was 10 and James was 12 at the time) were actually taken into the Miles household to not only work there, but live there. The word "adoption" was not used, but it definitely seemed to be implied. What I am trying to understand is this: Edvin Alexander (the father) is listed in the 1820 census (two years after the indenture) as apparently having the boys living in his household and not in the Miles household. I would like to see if there is a way to determine the proximity of Edvin's home to that of James Miles. Were they next to each other or several miles apart? Perhaps the Alexanders lived on the Miles property? >From what I have been able to read, indenturship such as this was quite uncommon in KY after 1800. Is there any history written that talks about this happening in Shelby County at about this time? Is it possible that the father may have essentially sold his boys into indentureship as a means of supporting his family after his wife Phebe left? What other reasons might families have done this? What sort of laws were there in the area on separation and divorce at the time? What sort of rights did the father have as compared to the mother? Were the children essentially treated as "property" of the father to do with as he pleased? I think some events surrounding and involving this indentureship have had reprocussions in later generations of my family, so I am trying to find out as much as I can. Ideas as to who to talk to or where to look are most certainly welcome. R Jackson San Antonio, TX