Good afternoon, Not only have I heard of the Manhattan claim, I remember in the 1920a when word spread of "our inheritance"! I shall never forget how my father scurried around to collect his family history in order to qualify for a part of the riches. Two of my great uncles even made a train trip to Washington, D.C. to check the records at the Archives but came back disillusioned since they couldn't find anything remotely tying us to any such claim. The story goes something like this: An old sea captain by the name of Edwards had given a 99 year lease on most of Manhattan (Woolworth Bldg., Chase Manhattan, etc.). He died at sea, and when the lease was up, his heirs "slept on their rights" to the lease, and when they realized their negliigence, the statute of limitations had taken over. All through the years various families have tried to claim this land to no avail. I myself wrote to various businesses located on this property and got interesting replies. I knew it was a losing proposition, but I was just trying to find out all I could about the matter in a light-hearted way. In the South, the group that was formed in the l920s was called "The Edwards-Key-Bibb Assn." My grandmother was a Key, and though she married a Shaw, it was through the Keys (not the Shaws) that my kin felt they had a claim to the property. Somewhere in the long ago past, I read that a Kentucky Shaw woman married a sea-Captain Edwards. But the Shaw name is not usually associated with the inheritance tale. My maiden name is Shaw. My Shaw family came to north Alabama in 1819 from Iredell Co., NC They had come to NC from Montgomery and Prince Georges Counties, Maryland. There was an Anguish/Angus Shaw in a William Shaw will in one of these counties in the early 1700s. I have a very dim picture of Evan Shaw. He is not in my line....I got the picture from a Mrs. Howard Shaw of Olney, IL many years ago. I do not know if she yet lives. She and I felt that Evan and Anguish belonged to a Basil Shaw family. (There is a Basil in the William Shaw will of which I speak in the above paragraph.) Back to the Manhattan property: I believe the whole deal was some sort of scam, either to get money or genealogies. But it does tend to jazz up our genealogies, doesn't it? I hope you had a nice Christmas in Galveston. Mine was very sad, for I have recently lost my husband of 56 years, and I myself am suffering of cancer. I hope I haven't confused you too much. Sincerely, Mary in Huntsville, AL