Those beastly laws
Oh, the stories to be told… The Legal Genealogist has always loved the traditional Scottish prayer: From ghoulies and ghosties And long-leggedy beasties And things that go bump in the night, Good Lord, deliver us!1 And since we started the week in a beastly...Vermont law: who’s on first
Why not the earlier law? As so often happens, about a nanosecond after The Legal Genealogist posts about a topic, somebody pops in with a question that the original post probably should have mentioned — or at least might have if there wasn’t a realistic...Freedom’s first guarantee
Happy 230th birthday to the Bill of Rights They were among 12 amendments first proposed by Congress to the states on 25 September 1789. It took more than two years for three-fourths of the states to ratify ten of them.1 The Legal Genealogist recognizes — as...Treatying history
Ratified Indian Treaties online There are 374 of them in all, transferred to the National Archives from the Department of State almost a century ago. The first is dated 14 August 1722, signed at Fort George, New York. The last is dated 13 August 1868, signed at...When the answer is right there…
For heaven’s sake, look at the law! Fair warning: The Legal Genealogist is on a rant. No matter how many times I make one key point, it seems that way too many genealogists just don’t get it. That point: if we want to understand the records, we have got to...Happy Constitution Day!
On 17 September 1787… They are words for the ages. They begin: “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the...The 31st state
Recording California The Preamble was short and sweet: Whereas the people of California have presented a constitution and asked admission into the Union, which constitution was submitted to Congress by the President of the United States, by message dated February...Same not same
A isn’t always A The age of consent isn’t the same thing as the age of consent. Really. Yes, The Legal Genealogist knows that’s confusing. So let’s try to untangle it. The issue came up yesterday on Facebook where the question was the ages of...Telling the whole story
From 1861 to…? It’s a story that began 160 years ago today. It was the 15th of April 1861 when newly-inaugurated President Abraham Lincoln signed a proclamation: WHEREAS the laws of the United States have been, for some time past, and are now opposed, and...Subscribe by Email
