Hi, gang, Something I stumbled on while looking up other things, a Google Book of cases handled by the 8th circuit court in 1841, which appears to have been based in Rochester, but there are Buffalo cases here, too. http://books.google.com/books?id=PqIUAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA45&dq=%22Holland+Land+COmpany%22&lr=&as_brr=3#PPP5,M1 Scroll down to the lower right to search within the book for a family or place name. Chancery courts evolved into something else (help me out here if you're an attorney) but they often handled divorces. *:-.,_,.-:*'``'*:-.,_,.-:*'``'*:-.,_,.-:*'``'*:-.,_,.-:**:-.,_,.-* Cynthia Van Ness, MLS, bettybarcode AT yahoo DOT com http://www.BuffaloResearch.com "Everyone claims to want a city, but no one here wants city living. City living by its definition is crowded. It is tolerant of other people. It is dependent on a sophisticated population that makes a hundred compromises daily so that they can benefit from the collective energy that a city generates." --Robert N. Davis, Jr. (1955-2007)