Reprise: Federal law primer
What the law was and is: federal (Note: Updated from an earlier version of this post that originally ran in June 2012.) One thing The Legal Genealogist preaches (to the point where some people are tired of it for pete’s sake already yet) is this: We need to...Guilty or not?
Missouri’s manslaughter law So… did you watch Who Do You Think You Are? last night? The Legal Genealogist did. In a room with most of the 200 genealogists attending the Genealogical Research Institute of Pittsburgh. Where else is a place going to break...The land speculator
Mason of Texas You never know what you’re going to find in a statute book. Really. The Legal Genealogist is the daughter, granddaughter, and great granddaughter of Texans, so it’s always fun to have time to poke around in old Texas records. And I was poking...Peremption and prescription
Civil law meanings You can see it, right there. It’s the very last section of the law. And there, Louisiana’s law says, “When the substantive law of this state would be applicable to the merits of an action brought in this state, the prescription and...The Commissioner
Precursor to the Magistrate On the fifth day of June, 1891, J.D. Shaw appeared in front of a judicial officer in the Western District of Arkansas and swore out a complaint. “I do solemnly swear and believe from reliable information in my possession,” he said, “that...Of clerks and fences
The prothonotary The story is told of President Harry Truman being introduced to a prothonotary in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and, in typical Trumanesque fashion, asking the question. “What the hell is a prothonotary?”1 A somewhat less elegant form of the question by...Legislating morality
Go and sin no more On the 7th of February, 1856, the New Mexico Territorial Legislature took a stand. No more living in sin. That sort of depraved conduct just wouldn’t be tolerated. From that day forward, it said: Any person or persons who shall after the...Alien admission
The soldier scholar So The Legal Genealogist was back poking around the statute books yesterday and came across a Joint Resolution of the United States Congress, passed in January 1912. Now many joint resolutions are things like allowing the Grand Army of the Republic...A matter of timing
How different can the law be? So… within minutes of each other two comments arrived in The Legal Genealogist’s email box yesterday that underscore a critical point when using the law in genealogy. Both focused on yesterday’s post about...Subscribe by Email
