This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/3AC.2ACE/1019.1.2.1 Message Board Post: Jerry While I have no connection with this Robert Adams family, nor do I know who Richard Gross' wife, Elizabeth, might have been, don't put too much faith on the fact she was relinquishing her dower in this deed. All that means is that Elizabeth was the wife of Richard Gross, and that if Richard had sold it, without her permission, and then died, she was still "owed" 1/3 of that mat of land, or it's worth, no matter what. While a female may not have owned land, in her right, once married, even if she inherited it, she had 1/3 of what ever they owned together, no matter what. A husband could not cut her out of her dower, even if he wrote a will that did so. She had a legal right to challenge the will and get her 1/3 no matter what, and often, they did. So, it only establishes that Elizabeth _ m Richard Gross and they were still married, she was still alive, when it was sold. Other than that, it doesn't help for identifying her. IF she had inherited it, it may have said that they were selling the land, left to her by her father, and she'd still have to relinquish her dower. I"m nor sure, once married, she could have kept it on her own, nor could she have prevented his selling it, except for her 1/3, even if she inherited it. There were rights of dower as well as curtsey.. his right to 1/3. Most of that has left law, though I think there are still certain states and circumstances where rights of dower and curtsey exist. But, I'm not a lawyer, so could be wrong.