Jinks, The small entry in the court record of Dyer Co seems clear that Mathew is declaring himself to be the son , Polly Miller (mentioned as the wife of Wm Miller), as the daughter as two of the eight children of Stephen D Pate. It says that Stephen is of Dyer (and Margaret reminds me that Dyer is a town in Gibson Co) and although this is a Dyer Co Record, since it does not say Dyer Co but "Dyer" it probably means the town of Dyer. I have seen the original and entire record of the Dyer Co entry. It is the one I copied and placed on the net. It seems to refer to a previous document but the intent is clear that Stephen D. Pate is the father and Mathew and Mrs. Miller are two of the eight children. I believe that Mathew is trying to establish clear inheritance lines. This may be important since several of the original 1830 Dyer Co Pates are no longer living. Stephen (married to Jane Milliken)before 1830, Mathew (married to Jane Milliken)@1844-50), Elizabeth Ann Pate Clark(1848) are dead by early 1850s, and AJ is not long lived. (Mathew in the suit goes to Polly's husband Wm Miller (of the original generation) and to my Col Wm A Dawson (of his own generation) as securities.) I think that the Gibson land and property might settle the question. Anyone near Dyer and Gibson who could look for us? Meredith ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jinks Lee" <jinksp@juno.com> To: <dsheridan1@ec.rr.com> Sent: Tuesday, November 19, 2002 6:31 PM Subject: Re: [PATE] Elizabeth Pate 1800 Tn and Henderson Clark 1797 > Meredith - does anybody have a copy of the complete > court record you are referring to?? It's just that the few > excerpts I've seen did not to me clearly explain the relationship > of Stephen, Matthew and May Ann -- I worked for an > attorney for several years and realize how wording can > be taken in several different ways. I haven't studied it > in a while, so will have to go back and re-study it to > see what I was thinking at the time. > I just checked and most of the surrounding counties > to Dyer were formed at the same time - 1823; Gibson, > Haywood, etc - so the records would probably still > be in Dyer, if they are extant. > Wish I knew somebody in that part of the country > that could take a look for the records. I am hoping to > make a genealogy trip in the spring, thru AL, SC, VA and > TN, but don't know if I can get around to all I want to > do. > Jinks >