Family law is an area of the law that deals with family-related issues and domestic relations including the nature of marriage, civil unions, and domestic partnerships; issues arising during marriage, including spousal abuse, legitimacy, adoption, surrogacy, child abuse, and child abduction; the termination of the relationship and ancillary matters including divorce, annulment, property settlements, alimony, and parental responsibility orders (in the United States, child custody and visitation, child support and alimony awards).
Whittier was a small town, founded in 1881 by Clark Whittier when he purchased 60,000 acres (240 km²) of land in the area, and is now an unincorporated community in western North Carolina. It was incorporated as a town from 1887 to 1933, when the Great Depression took the lumber industry boom (which began in the 1900s) down with it. The town was located on the railroad and the Tuckasegee River, between Bryson City downstream to the west, and Dillsboro upstream to the southeast. It straddles the county line between Jackson County to its east and Swain County to the west.