M. A. Farrell indicates a certain amount of interest in the pre-nuptial agreement of the subject persons. The following have been my conclusions after stumbling on this document in the filmed Madison Co. deeds. Nancy Harris nee Oldham was widow of Overton Harris (d. testate 1827). Overton was one of the younger sons of Christopher Harris, formerly of Albemarle Co., VA and his second wife Agnes McCord. Anderson Chenault, whose parentage is not entirely clear to me, was a rather recent widower, and Nancy had been a widow for about ten years. (Was Anderson Chenault the son of David Chenault the elder, or of a younger Chenault? Some say a William Chenault was his father and his mother Elizabeth Mullins. Any verification of the last statement?) Overton Harris's will was written in such a way that if Nancy, his widow, remarried, she would lose control of ALL the property. Some of the property was in Missouri, if I remember correctly. Nancy had a houseful of children whom she had to support, and several of them were quite young when Overton died, including my second great-grandmother Carlisle Harris. (Carlisle married Michael Lowery Stoner and migrated to Texas with him and about five children about 1859. Carlisle promptly died of *stomach inflamation*, says the 1860 Texas mortality schedule.). My hunch is that Nancy 1) had a smart attorney or smart advisor advising her to draw up this pre-nuptial agreement and 2) she probably guessed, as I have, that Anderson was a land speculator--at least judging from the number of times his name is indexed in at least the grantor indexes of Madison Co. (This is a hunch only. We genealogists have to form some hypotheses and then TRY to check them out. I really should check the Court Order books to see how many times Anderson shows up in lawsuits!!!) Anyway, Nancy outlived Anderson, for about 4 years. I believe he died ca 1854, and she died in 1858.) If anyone besides Mary Ann is interested in the wording of this agreement, I believe I have a copy of the filmed original. It was not recorded until a year after the couple had been married. Whether these two ever lived together is a mystery to me. Why? Because one of the censuses--it must have been the 1850 census--shows them in separate households. This may have been a temporary separation, caused by Nancy's taking care of a family member or two, but.... How do I know so much about Nancy (Oldham) Harris?. Because she is my third great-grandmother [one of several, of course]. Seeking her paternal lineage has led me to research many a county in Virginia--Northern Neck Virginia where there are MANY Oldhams, and hardly any documents to link more than about two generations. (Because Oldham descendants want a nice neat pedigree chart, they link persons without sufficient documentation.) There are so many Oldhams that it makes my head swim, and hardly any of the document examined after several decades reveals the lineage of Nancy's paternal grandfather, who migrated from Caswell Co., NC [formed from Orange Co., NC] to Madison co., KY. Allegedly, Jesse Oldham, her grandfather, brought letters *from home* to Col. Richard Henderson whenever he was in Kentucky, most particularly Boonesborough. I have one single piece of documentation of Jesse Oldham's linkage to Virginia. In 1755, he was with the 2nd Virginia Rangers in the French and Indian War, Capt. John Ashby's company. (Lloyd D. Bockstruck, Virginia's Colonial Soldiers.) Sorry, folks, this was NOT Revolutionary War service--it was British service!!! Documenting all these movements and folks involved in these movements from State to State is a lifelong process. I should live so long. E.W.Wallace ************************************** See what's new at http://www.aol.com