If Rebecca did have more than one child, and we do not find it in Jefferson,
it may have been in the Sevier County Court, which we will never know. It
appears she did have more than one child. Will check, Ann
-----Original Message-----
From: Edgar D. Byler, III <edby3(a)netease.net>
To: CATE-L(a)rootsweb.com <CATE-L(a)rootsweb.com>; Bettye Heinrich
<bettye(a)jps.net>
Date: Sunday, January 25, 1998 10:59 AM
Subject: Re: Cate Poser
I can echo Bettye's statement that the court records in Jefferson
County
and in that specific Chancery and Circuit District, should be thoroughly
searched not only in the time frame of 1812-1820, but even later. It is
wise for genealogists to remember that in Tennessee real estate descended
immediately on death of the owner to his heirs without any probate. It is
therefore possible that land owned by an individual at the time of his
death would not be divided by the heirs until thirty, fifty or even 100
years later. And a record of that division may not show up in the county
records until the final deed of sale was made. If the heirs didn't
disagree on the division or sale (which is generally unlikely), the only
record would be the deed where they finally sold it.
But if they didn't agree on the division or sale of the property, then
there would definitely be a court case filed in either the County Court
(earlier known as the Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions), the Chancery
Court - either sitting in the county or in the district, or the Circuit
Court.
In the last twenty years I've learned to take a look at various court
records over the entire history of a courty for estate settlements. I found
one in the County Court minutes in 1915 involving the estate of a
ggggg-uncle who died in 1862. The case named all his children, although the
whereabouts of most of them were unknown by that time; his grandchildren
where known, great-grandchildren, and even some great-great-grandchildren.
It took a while to properly chart these descendants, but it made a really
great chart when I finished and provided an outline for further research in
the census and marriages records.
I know of another case which involved the settlement of the estate of the
son of a Rev. War soldier. The man died about 1875 and the final settlement
wan't made until the 1990's.
So don't forget to look forward in the Court records (and that's all court
records) for the settlement of an estate. And if possible, and the records
have been published and indexed, the researcher should also check all the
cases. I just wrote Evelynabout a case in 1918 in Chancery Court here in
Wayne County involving hundreds and hundreds of people. There are several
thousand pages of depositions and those depositions have provided
fascinating material on the families of people who died prior to 1850, or
left the county prior to 1860. The case was so far reaching that
depositions were taken of people in Arkansas, Missouri, and all over
Tennessee. The minutes books don't record these depositons, so the loose
records files are the only source. Never fail to ask about the original
case papers. Many times the clerks were too lazy to record all of even the
Original Bills.
I'll get off my soap box now and hopefully I can prevail upon someone in
the legal or judicial system here in Tennessee to do an in-dept article for
the TNGenWeb on the history and development of the Court system in
Tennessee and also the inheritance laws.
Edgar
Edgar D. Byler, III
edby3(a)netease.net
Editor, Wayne County Historian
Wayne County, Tennessee, USA
Wayne County Web Page:
http://www.netease.net/wayne
----------
> From: Bettye Heinrich <bettye(a)jps.net>
> To: CATE-L(a)rootsweb.com
> Subject: Cate Poser
> Date: Saturday, January 24, 1998 4:53 PM
>
> Yesterday, when the item with S. Henry as supposed father of Rebecca
Cate's
> 'Base Born' child came through I thought "There's the answer".
>
> After reading it again and the posting that just came through the Base
Born
> child could not have been C. L. Cate because he was born in 1818 and this
> child's record is in the court records btw 1812 & 1814.
>
> New poser: is this a different Rebecca Cate or did she have more than
one
> Base Born child? It seems highly UNLIKELY that the Dumplin Church would
> wait until 1818 to condemn Rebecca as I have read alot of church records
> from that era and they 'got right to the matter'. SO it appears that
there
> were at least 2 Base Born children born to a Rebecca Cate in that time
frame
> in Jefferson Co, TN.
>
> I think a closer look at the Jefferson CO Tn court records would be a
wise
> decision.
>
> Regards, Bettye
> Regards, Bettye