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It’s a crime

Maintenance as an offense There is — ulp!! — just one week to go before the 44th annual conference of the National Genealogical Society begins in Sacramento, California. Themed Our American Mosaic, this conference will draw speakers, exhibitors and...

Indentures indeed

Not just for servants or apprentices A Vermont librarian was a little confused by a word used to describe a donated record. Patti Houghton Arrison, librarian at the Weathersfield, Vermont, Historical Society, was delighted to have the record: an 1857 document...

Bailing out

…of a different stripe… The case was heard in the December 1800 term of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania — and it’s exactly the kind of thing a genealogist hopes to find. George Keppele and Henry Zantzinger had been business partners in...

Prove it!

Not a physical act! It came up again just last week, in a legal document from the late 1700s in New York State that a fellow genealogist needed help understanding. It’s a phrase often seen in court pleadings from years ago — and one that’s not used...

No ordinary court

No matter what the name is… It was July of 1848, and Robert Smith had been given a special charge by the court in Gilmer County, Georgia. By law, he had to give bond in the amount of $200. In other words, he had to make a promise that he would do the job right,...

Just the facts

… of whatever flavor… Reader David came across the reference in an 1877 court case he was trying to figure out. And it made no sense to him whatsoever. “The court,” he wrote, “appears to be drawing a distinction between facts and facts. And I don’t...