In gold or silver coin
About those lawbooks… What exactly did Elizabeth Wright do for a living around 1867? You won’t find the answer in the 1850 census, even though you can find her in the 1850 census of St. Louis, Missouri. She was recorded as 38 years old, born in Scotland,...Mapping San Mateo
Just where would that ancestor have lived? So… an ancestor died in San Mateo County, California, on 1 January 1886. His obituary kindly informs us that he had lived in the same house for exactly 40 years, having moved in on 1 January 1846. Here’s the...Finding the law in the Natural State
Early Arkansas statutes It’s been called, at one point or another, the Bear State, the Toothpick State, Rackensack, the Wonder State, the Land of Opportunity and — now — the Natural State. Only the last three, however, were official nicknames of...Sunshine on Sunflower state laws
A one-stop shop for early Kansas statutes It’s called the Sunflower State, and the sunflower has been the official state flower since 1903. Its people sometimes call themselves Jayhawkers, with a source ascribed to some blending of a noisy blue jay and a...Centennial State laws
Colorado statutes from 1861 It was part of Spain, France — no, Spain — no, France — both Spain and France, the United States and Mexico and Texas, and then just the United States. At least some part of its land at one time or another had been in the Louisiana,...Keystone statutes
A source for early Pennsylvania laws What does it tell us about the kinds of things our earliest ancestors in colonial Pennsylvania were concerned about when the first 10 laws enacted by the Province of Pennsylvania in 1682 were: • Concerning liberty of conscience •...Those deranged New Yorkers
The language of the law. Part Latin, part Anglo-Saxon, all confusing. The Legal Genealogist is often simply unable to resist a challenge. Like the one tossed out last Thursday, after I wrote about brevet commissions in the military.1 “Here’s a challenge for...A matter of rank
The brevet rank in military law Reader GR Gordon is struggling to understand the use of “Brevet” military ranks by several men from a maternal grandfather’s home town in upstate New York, who were members of the Company H, 5th New York Volunteer Cavalry Regiment, in...Happy birthday, Homestead Act!
Signed into law 157 years ago today He was a Union soldier home on furlough, so the story goes. And he was determined not to lose his chance under a new law due to take effect on the first of January 1863. Due to report back to his unit in St. Louis, he prevailed on...Subscribe by Email
