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From: "Family Tree Bookshop" <>
Subject: Re: [LDR] Will question
Date: Tue, 17 Jun 2003 09:14:25 -0400
References: <f9.2e42676c.2c1f311f@aol.com>


Dear Cat:
Good hearing from you. In abstracting the wills for the various
counties in Maryland, I have seen that particular kind of thing surface in
quite a few of them. I tend to think--and this has been shown in a number of
wills to be the case--that they are children born out-of-wedlock. In some
cases they use the term "commonly known as" or "alias" or where there really
is some doubt--at least in the mind of the testator--they will be labled as
"reputed to be." There is another possibility which is that they are
step-children--or as are referred to in many early wills and an important
point for any researcher to distinguish because this defies the modern
connotation--"son-in-law" or "daughter-in-law." As I said this goes against
our understanding of an "in-law" but because marriage--particularly in the
17th and 18th centuries-- was more of a legal notion than a religious one,
particularly in families with a more Calvinist orientation--they were
indeed, the person's child by law.
Hope this helps with your problem a bit.
<<<Neil>>>
----- Original Message -----
From: <>
To: <>
Sent: Monday, June 16, 2003 10:41 AM
Subject: [LDR] Will question


> I have a will probated 1850 in Kent Co. that I am trying to interpret, and
I
> would like to get the reaction from the knowledgeable folk on this list.
>
> The will is from one Philemon C. Dehorty of Mispillion Hundred in which he
> bequethes his estate to "Alexander a son of Margaret Sylvester commonly
called
> Alexander Dehorty ... " and $300 to "Ely a son of Margaret Sylvester
commonly
> called Ely Dehorty". How do I interpret his relationship to these two
boys?
> Was he a father, uncle, something else? How might I track down this
> relationship?
>
> Thanks for any advice.
>
>
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