Drawing the lines
When county borders get fuzzy As genealogists we all know how counties are created, right? The legislature of the appropriate jurisdiction — colony, territory or state — passes a law creating the new county and setting out its borders. Kind of like what...Linking the Alabama Constitutions
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...Legally speaking in Alabama
One-stop shopping for state laws So The Legal Genealogist is doing the usual poking around in old laws, getting ready for this weekend’s 2019 Spring Seminar of the Alabama Genealogical Society, to be held at Samford University. And it’s really easy to do...Researching the Yellowhammer State
A resource for research in the Heart of Dixie Here are the quick facts: • It was admitted to the Union on 14 December 1819 — so this year it celebrates its bicentennial. • It was named after an Indian tribe. • It was originally part of Mississippi Territory. •...The courts versus the Family Bible
Always always doublecheck Everything about the entries in the Family Bible says they should be believed. Those two final deaths entered on the family pages were written in two different inks and two different handwritings — or at least by one person at two very...Reprise: remembering the internees
The stain on American honor It began 77 years ago yesterday. February 19, 1942. The day when the United States began rounding up and locking up more than 100,000 men, women and children who had committed no crime except to arouse the fears of their neighbors. Men,...Naming names in Arizona
In the statute books too Today is the day The Legal Genealogist toughens up and does that terribly hard thing that’s been looming in the schedule this week. After all, I’m speaking Saturday at the 2019 Seminar of the West Valley Genealogical Society, and...The defense of coverture
He told me to… There’s a concept in the law called duress. It’s defined as “unlawful constraint exercised upon a man whereby he is forced to do some act against his will.”1 And it was very much on the minds of the very first lawmakers in what was...Changing gears
… legally speaking … Sometimes just knowing what the law is, isn’t enough. Sometime what we need to know is how and when the law changed. After yesterday’s blog post about expatriation and some of the records created by repatriation,1 a reader...Subscribe by Email
