O death! Thy name is woman
Gotta check those sources So yesterday one of The Legal Genealogist’s favorite websites, History.com, was running a cool interactive feature called “Bet You Didn’t Know,” a set of 552 facts about history that the website bet we didn’t know. I’m...The drafty Ohioan
When Johnny didn’t go for a soldier In genealogy, as in law, it’s awfully hard to prove a negative. It’s even harder when you’re trying to figure out why someone didn’t do something you think perhaps he should have done. But that’s...The curious case of the curator
The language of the law. Part Latin, part Anglo-Saxon, all confusing. The orders both appear on the very first page of Letters of Administration Book A of Volusia County, Florida. Both are captioned “In the Matter of the Estate of Philemon Wilhite deceased.” And they...A Prince of a sheriff
Prince William County, Virginia, 1904-1911 Reader Allissa Smith was particularly interested in The Legal Genealogist’s webinar earlier this week on criminal court records because of one ancestor: her second great grandfather Francis C. “Frank” Rorabaugh was the...A matter of inquiry
Special investigative reports It was the worst man-made explosion ever until the Atomic Bomb was dropped. In the blink of an eye, some 1,500 people died. Hundreds more perished afterwards, of injuries or trapped in the flames that spread. Some 9,000 were injured. And...To the rescue
Elisha Kane and the Arctic expeditions It’s just one small paragraph, tucked way at the back of an old book of federal statutes in which The Legal Genealogist was poking around. “Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America...Voting and the law
The value of records If you’re a member of the National Genealogical Society — and you should be — then you should be reading the NGS blog, UpFront with NGS. (You don’t have to be an NGS member to read UpFront with NGS, but The Legal...A different kind of census
Enumerating the children It goes without saying that the United States censuses, taken every 10 years, are among the most valuable genealogical records that can be found for those of us who call some corner of this country home. The population schedules, slave...The mothers’ pension laws
Public aid for needy women and children Her full name was Dorcas Nellie (Cummins) Briggs and she was 39 years old when she went before the Probate Court in Cassia County, Idaho, on 9 May 1923, and said she needed help to feed her children. She was born, she said, in...Subscribe by Email
