A release of dower is always an exciting record to find. At the very least, it establishes the wife's given name. The absence of a release of dower can also establish if a wife is deceased.
This particular release of dower reveals that my ancestress, Asenith E. (Williams) Thompson survived her husband Solomon R. Thompson by at least a year and a half. Up until this moment, I had no idea if she had predeceased him or survived after him.
In 1874, Solomon R. Thompson deeded land that he had acquired from John S. Blackmon in Lancaster County, South Carolina, to his son Rev. Eugene W. Thompson. Eugene died three years later in 1877, leaving a wife Jennie C. (Lowe) Thompson and a young son, J. L. Thompson. There was no release of dower with this deed even though I knew that Solomon's wife Asenith was still alive on the 1880 census three years later.
Then Solomon R. Thompson died in 1882. A year and a half later, on 20 February 1884, Jennie C. Thompson must have been trying to get a clear title of that piece of land, so she could sell it. At that time, she must have sought a release of dower from her mother-in-law, who was still living. This belated dower is at present the only documentation that I have that indicates Asenith E. (Williams) Thompson was still living as late as 1884.
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| Lancaster County, SC; Conveyance Bk D, p. 446 |
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