On 12 JUL 1883, John Llewellyn and his wife Elizabeth E. (Shannon) Llewellyn deeded the property on which stands today, Grassy Valley Church in Knox County, TN. If you have been there you might have noticed how suburbia has swallowed the area and how small the tract of land is for a church.
The deed from the Llewellyn family to the church is a reverter deed, which means that, should the church cease to be a church, the property will revert to the heirs of John and Elizabeth Llewellyn.
During SEP 2009 I received a phone call from my Aunt Helen notifying me that she had been contacted by the Grassy Valley Church. The pastor approached her with a proposition that included a Quit Claim Deed. She wisely declined to sign the document. At the time, the pastor was looking for a way to escape the property and when he discovered he could not sell the property, he sought the Quit Claim Deed. As explained to me by him, CVS Pharmacies showed an interest in having a pharmacy on that corner where the church stands. The pastor had been offered $6M. That money would have opened the door to move the church, and build a new, larger facility.
I talked with my aunt's lawyer and then I hired my own. My lawyer verified the validity of the Reverter Deed but explained they usually never revert because of the complexity of the heirs as time passes.
At first, Aunt Helen thought the heirs were few; myself, my sister, her son and her daughter, but she had the wrong generation and did not consider that it included children of children, generation after generation. Just for the record, here is some discussion of the genealogy:
John Llewellyn and Elizabeth Elmyra Shannon were probably married in Morgan County, TN, date unknown although probably around 1859. John was born 19 JAN 1836 in Morgan County, the third son of William & Nancy Wallace Llewellyn. John and Elizabeth had the following children:
1) William Anderson Llewellyn, b. 15 JUL 1860
2) Nancy J. Llewellyn, b. 19 APR 1863
3) John Bell Llewellyn, b. 25 JUL 1865
4) Newton Carson Llewellyn, b. 6 NOV 1867
5) Charles Smith Llewellyn, b. 23 JUN 1871
6) Freeman H. Llewellyn, b. 19 OCT 1873
7) Myra Llewellyn, b. 11 OCT 1882
As explained to me, the legal definition of heirs includes all offspring, male or female, in perpetuity. Please stop and let that sink in. I am an heir as well as my two daughters and any offspring they may have. This is where it becomes infeasible to know who or how many individuals this may include. And this includes all descendants of these family members.
A little more about the heirs.
William Anderson Llewellyn had the following children all now deceased:
a) Nora Llewellyn, b. 19 JUN 1882, never married as far as I know.
b) Mary Llewellyn, b. 3 JAN 1887, married Henry Dismuke Anderson and thus their descendants are heirs
c) Walter J. Llewellyn, b. 14 DEC 1889, had 5 children all of whose descendants would be heirs.
b) Stella M. Llewellyn, b. 16 JAN 1893, married Robert Crosby, all descendants would be heirs.
Nancy J. Llewellyn may have married a Hulen and thus all of the descendants from that marriage would be heirs.
John Bell Llewellyn had five children, four of which had no children. The fifth child being my grandfather who had two children.
Newton Carson Llewellyn had three children and all of their descendants would be heirs.
Charles Smith Llewellyn married Alice Ann Yarnell and they had at least one child and their descendants.
Myra Llewellyn, unknown if she ever married.
Freeman Llewellyn married Bessie McCallie but had no children that I know of.
If an heir were to sign a deed, my lawyer warned me the signer becomes liable to the heirs. In other words, if I were to assist the Church in leaving the property, all of the heirs could sue me for their portion of the proceeds of the sale. I ended my contract with the lawyer upon calculating how little money it would mean to each heir. My advice, do nothing. But, know you are an heir in the unlikely event occurs where the church vacates the land and the buildings.