Falling between the cracks?
Nice try, no cigar As legal arguments go, it’s one of the better ones. It didn’t work, not one bit, but it’s still a pretty good try. The year was 1866. The place, Wake County, North Carolina. And, on the first of November of that year, a man named...Early citizenship records
Don’t overlook the laws! It’s a natural enough thought that even The Legal Genealogist has: when we want to find naturalization records, we look to the court records of the day. Right? Um… Maybe not. Or at least not for everything. Case in point: On...The changing times
From freeholder to householder It changed, there in Tennesee, in 1809. You can — if you’re like The Legal Genealogist and a bit of a law geek and like to read the laws — see the change right there in the laws. It’s always fun for me, when...To serve… or not
Tennessee’s militia laws Reader Kenna couldn’t understand it. The research target she was closing in on lived in Tennessee in the 1840s and, she was sure, should have been on a militia list she found. But his name wasn’t there. He’d been in the...Guardian for a son
A father appointed by the court The question comes up repeatedly. Why would a father have to be named guardian of his own child? It came up again just this morning in a question from a reader. She was looking at an Indiana family in the 1860s, where the mother died...Stamping the law
Finding early British laws It was entitled “An act for granting and applying certain stamp duties, and other duties, in the British colonies and plantations in America, towards further defraying the expences of defending, protecting, and securing the same; and for...Forty-two names
Licenses, 1762 style There are 42 names on the list in the records of the Court of General Quarter Sessions of the Peace held at York for the County of York the last Tuesday of July 1762. Every one of them is set out in full, with first name, last name and even, in...Finding Iowa laws
The laws of the Hawkeye State It’s the mantra of The Legal Genealogist. Repeated over and over until long-time readers and conference goers can chant it along with me. To understand the records, we have to understand the law. And not just the law in general, but...Looking back at Michigan lands
Primary School Lands: reprise In anticipation of this weekend’s seminar of the Western Michigan Genealogical Society in Grand Rapids, The Legal Genealogist was looking back on research done on Michigan issues in the past. (You are coming to the seminar, right?...Subscribe by Email
