Naming names
In the pages of the lawbooks Every so often, The Legal Genealogist comes across someone who looks at the sheer volume of statutory law that may have some genealogical value and is aghast. “There can’t really,” the person may whimper, “be anything in there of any...The laws of the Old Dominion
Researching Virginia’s early laws So The Legal Genealogist is off again this weekend (can you tell it’s conference season?) and this time to a state through which just about all of my mother’s ancestors passed at one point or another —...Reprise: Separate property, separate debts
A second look at California’s 1850 law (Note: In honor of, and to get ready for, The Legal Genealogist’s trip to the San Mateo County Genealogical Society, this weekend, here’s a reprise of a second post about San Mateo’s sole traders!) So last...Reprise: California’s sole traders
Affirmative action 1850s style (Note: In honor of, and to get ready for, The Legal Genealogist’s trip to the San Mateo Genealogical Society, this weekend, here’s a reprise of this post about San Mateo’s sole traders!) On the 29th of December 1856,...The aging of Oregon
How old was he…? So many times, in genealogy, our ability to construct an argument that this person is related to that person in just this way depends on figuring out just how old somebody was at the time of a specific event. And we often don’t have direct...Reprise: Crime and punishment in Oregon Territory
Benefit of clergy, wager of “battle,” and petit treason (Note: In honor of, and to get ready for, The Legal Genealogist’s trip to the Genealogical Forum of Oregon this weekend, here’s a reprise of this 2012 post about Oregon’s criminal...Volunteer parents
Access to Tennessee adoption records The question came up at the Tennessee Genealogical Society seminar this past Saturday, as it so often does. How can we as genealogists get access to adoption records? The particular question in this case was directed to adoptions...Yes, it was
The rest of the marriage story Tomorrow marks the 98th anniversary of the day when a pair of 18-year-olds stood before a Texas judge and exchanged their wedding vows. And a year ago, The Legal Genealogist told the tale of that 1916 marriage — the bride and groom...The oh-so-common law
It really is our common heritage So… The Legal Genealogist knows it sounds like a broken record sometimes. To understand the records, we have to understand the laws at the time and in the place where the records were created. Which is why I keep stressing that...Subscribe by Email
