AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - The Texas Supreme Court has ruled against a family seeking to prove wealthy South Texas rancher John G. Kenedy left behind an illegitimate daughter and heir to his fortune.

The court Friday upheld lower court rulings that denied the claims of the family of Ann Fernandez, who wanted to prove she was Kenedy’s sole heir. The Supreme Court said she had no viable claim for inheriting Kenedy’s fortune and denied a request to exhume Kenedy’s body for DNA testing.

Kenedy was said to be sterile because of a childhood illness.

Fernandez was born out of wedlock in a home for unwed mothers in Waco and alleged she never knew her father’s identity until 2000, when her mother told her that her son looked like his grandfather, Kenedy.