by Judy G. Russell | Aug 25, 2020 | Constitutions, Primary Law, Statutes |
Researching dower in North Carolina Reader Marcia is puzzled. “I have been doing family history in North Carolina and dealing with Dower and other goodies,” she writes. “When she got the land as a dower right did the widow own it outright?” Great question, because a...
by Judy G. Russell | Aug 18, 2020 | Constitutions, Primary Law |
Thank you, Phoebe King Ensminger Burn It was 100 years ago today that Harry T. Burn did what he was told. He listened to his mama. And the result of doing that simple thing was historic in every sense of that word. It was precisely 100 years ago today that Harry T....
by Judy G. Russell | Mar 7, 2019 | Constitutions, Resources |
The woes of web writers Years ago, The Legal Genealogist carefully researched and wrote up a long piece on the six — count ’em — six constitutions that Alabama has had in its closing-in-on-200 years of history. Yep. Alabama celebrates its...
by Judy G. Russell | Nov 8, 2018 | Constitutions, Primary Law, Resources |
Legal research in the Bay State Researching the way Massachusetts was created as a matter of law through its chartering documents is really easy, isn’t it? After all, The Legal Genealogist is quite sure that Massachusetts has only ever had one Constitution,...
by Judy G. Russell | Aug 10, 2018 | Constitutions |
The town with the incongruous name There’s no getting around it. The town of Equality in Gallatin County, Illinois, was anything but in early Illinois history. Because for years, there was slavery in one little corner of Illinois — the little corner near...
by Judy G. Russell | Oct 13, 2017 | Constitutions, Primary Law |
That first state charter The Legal Genealogist is on the road again. In Grand Rapids, Michigan, to be precise, for tomorrow’s Got Ancestors?! 2017 seminar of the Western Michigan Genealogical Society. We’re going to have a lot of fun tomorrow at the Grand...
by Judy G. Russell | Sep 20, 2017 | Constitutions, Statutes |
Protecting California’s women With The Legal Genealogist heading back to California at the end of this week for the all-day seminar of the California Genealogical Society in Berkeley Saturday, it’s time to revisit a set of records that tend to be...
by Judy G. Russell | May 5, 2017 | Constitutions, Resources |
Setting the stage for statehood It is an extraordinary document, this record of early California. One of only two such documents in the history of that western state. And extraordinary in its own right. It is the Constitution of 1849.1 Yes, The Legal Genealogist is...
by Judy G. Russell | Sep 21, 2016 | Constitutions, Resources, Statutes |
Yesterday’s laws inform today’s debates The Legal Genealogist didn’t mean to pick on Montana yesterday in focusing on the fact that anti-immigrant sentiment is nothing new in American politics. The point of yesterday’s blog was simply that...
by Judy G. Russell | Mar 13, 2015 | Constitutions, Legal definitions, Resources, Statutes |
Excluding and including the Indian There is a curious phrase in the Constitution of the United States. It appears in Article I, section 2, and it appears again in the 14th Amendment. In Article I, the Constitution provides that Representatives and direct taxes shall...