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...The essential difference
… between dower and dowry … The Legal Genealogist is putting the finishing touches on a presentation about a particular variation in genealogical records of our early female ancestors. And that reminded me that I keep meaning to explain the essential...Banning the marriage
Well, not exactly a ban… It was the law in colonial Virginia, enacted in February 1631/32. Marriage, in that colony, was almost always banned.1 It was the law in colonial Massachusetts, enacted as least as early as November of 1692. Marriage, in that colony, was...Those OTHER patents
… for inventions and the like So… last week, The Legal Genealogist tackled the difference between patents and deeds. You know… the difference between a document evidencing a land transfer from the sovereign to a private owner (like the patent the...Of patents and deeds
What’s the difference anyway? Pop quiz time. What’s the difference in American law between a patent for land and a deed for land? This was an issue up for discussion on Facebook yesterday when a poster had a copy of a land patent in favor of an ancestor in...That lie under oath…
Perjury… or false swearing? A lie under oath is a lie under oath. But that doesn’t mean all lies under oath are equal in the eyes of the law. The issue came up for The Legal Genealogist in a pair of reported court cases. One is kind of an oddball case, out...Subscribe by Email
