⭐⭐⭐ STEPHENS-21, folded into the chart 7 August 2026 — the strongest indication yet that she was a SECOND WIFE whose own next of kin were Stephenses.

The final settlement of James Thorn’s estate, Greene Co., Alabama Orphans’ Court Minutes, 14 October 1844 (p. 274), distributes his legacies to Jesse W. Thorn, Nazareth Thorn, James Thorn, William Henry Thorn and Elizabeth Crisp, plus the seven children of a predeceased son Kennedy Thorn. ⭐ Mary Thorn is not among the legatees — as widow she took a widow’s share, a different thing — and the Thorn sons formally released all claims against her estate, which was administered by a STEPHENS. Had she been their mother, her estate would have gone to them and no Stephens would have been appointed to it.

⚠⚠ A strong indication, not a proof. This node stays a hypothesis. ⭐ But it dates the document that should name JANE: Mary was James Thorn’s widow, so he died first, and Jane must have come to Mary out of his estate at the assignment of the widow’s share — a proceeding that itemises people by name and value. Greene County, probably 1841–1843.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ SHE HAD A HUSBAND, AND HE IS NAMED — 7 Aug 2026 [STEPHENS-20]. Greene County Orphans’ Court Minutes 1839–1845, ark 3:1:3Q9M-C91H-HSD8-M, image 723, page 274, 14 October 1844: “This day came Jesse W Thorn and William H Thorn administrators with the will annexed of JAMES THORN deceased … and JAMES STEPHENS administrator of the Estate of MARY THORN deceased (WHO WAS THE WIDOW OF THE SAID JAMES THORN) also appearing in open Court … the said James Stephens administrator as aforesaid acknowledge satisfaction in full of THE SHARE OF THE SAID WIDOW, his said intestate, to the estate of the said James Thorn deceased, and the said Jesse W Thorn and William H Thorn … release and discharge all claim or claims which they have or hold against the Estate of the said Mary Thorn deceased.” ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ AND THIS BEARS ON THE VERY DOUBT WRITTEN INTO THIS NODE. The outstanding note has said for days: “NO document yet uses the word ‘children.’ A childless woman’s next of kin can be nephews and nieces.” She now turns out to be a woman who died bearing the surname THORN BY MARRIAGE, whose next of kin are all named STEPHENS. The most economical explanation is that STEPHENS was her FIRST married name and THORN her second — which would make Moore, James, Lewis, William, Esther, Lucinda and Elizabeth her CHILDREN by the first marriage, exactly as the ten equal shares and Esther Hitt’s per stirpes “Representatives” already suggested. ⚠⚠ STRENGTHENED, NOT PROVED. The alternative survives: Stephens could be her MAIDEN name and the Stephens heirs her brothers and their families. The node stays ‘hyp’ until a document says so. ⭐⭐⭐ AND THE TWO DOCUMENTS THAT WOULD SETTLE IT ARE NOW NAMED AND LOCATABLE: ① a marriage of MARY STEPHENS to JAMES THORN (Greene Co., Ala., or earlier in Orange Co., North Carolina, where Moore Stephens married in 1817); ② JAMES THORN’S WILL — the court calls his administrators “with the will annexed,” so a will exists, and a will names a wife and usually her children. ⭐ NEW NAMES: JESSE W. THORN and WILLIAM H. THORN, his administrators and very likely his sons. ⚠⚠⚠ AND IT REACHES JANE. Mary’s estate was paid the widow’s share of James Thorn’s estate. In Alabama in 1844 a widow’s share of an estate that held people WAS people. JANE — sold out of Mary’s estate on 29 April 1844 for $700 [STEPHENS-13] — may well have come to Mary out of JAMES THORN’S estate, and his WILL is the first document that could name her before the sale. ——— Earlier note: NEW NODE, 6 Aug 2026 — and NOT yet proved. The Greene County Orphans’ Court cited Moore, James, Lewis and William Stephens, Esther Hitt, Lucinda Ball and Elizabeth Bevers as her NEXT OF KIN on 23 Jan 1844 [STEPHENS-07], and distributed her estate among TEN heirs in equal shares in 1846 [STEPHENS-06]. Three of the sisters are proved born Stephens by their own Greene County marriage records [STEPHENS-08], and Esther Hitt’s share went per stirpes to her “Representatives” — the treatment a court gives a predeceased CHILD. ⭐ She held promissory notes on Charles Stephens ($15.13, $32.40) and Lewis Stephens ($100) — she was banking her sons [STEPHENS-12]. ⭐ Her inventory of 27 Apr 1844 lists her whole world down to an 18-cent umbrella and a woman’s saddle — and “1 Negro woman JANE — 475.00,” worth more than everything else combined [STEPHENS-11].

Outstanding: ⚠⚠ NO document yet uses the word “children.” A childless woman’s next of kin can be nephews and nieces. She is drawn here as a HYPOTHESIS. The petition to sell land, or a Stephens × Thorn marriage, would settle it. ⚠⚠⚠ JANE, 6 Aug 2026 — FOUND: the account of sales reads “1 Negro Woman Jane ... James Stephens ... 700.00,” sold 29 April 1844 to the administrator, Moore’s own brother [STEPHENS-13]. She was 65% of the whole estate ($700 of $1,075.86), so roughly $70 of Moore’s $107.39 share was her price. In 1850 James Stephens held 13 people in Greene Co.; Jane is very probably the 38-year-old woman, but that schedule names no one [STEPHENS-14]. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ HER NAME IS ON THE OUTSIDE OF THE FILE [STEPHENS-19]: the clerk endorsed the packet “1105 · Greene County, Ala. · 1 NEGRO WOMAN JANE · Inventory of Notes · Estate file · Thorn, Mary · 1844 · James Stephens, administrator.” Everything Mary Thorn owned was summarised in two lines on the wrapper, and the first line is Jane. ⛔⛔ The packet is now BOUNDED — images 591–600, all read. The HIRE BOND and any PETITION TO SELL LAND are NOT in the loose papers (601 starts an 1825 estate; 589 is an 1861 guardian bond). Both must be sought in the GREENE CO. ORPHANS’ COURT MINUTE BOOKS 1844–46. ⚠ And the land was sold at the ordinary sale (Andrew Norwood, $127.09) — so a separate petition may never have existed, in which case this node may not be movable off ‘hyp’ by that route at all. Still owed: the 1870 census of Greene & Sumter Cos. for Jane.