Genealogy and the Law: A Guide to Legal Sources for the Family Historian (NGS Special Topics Series Book 114)

Knowing the laws that ancestors lived under is one key to understanding why they did or did not do things. Laws govern marriage, land ownership, inheritance, business transactions, and many other aspects of life. Laws specify punishments for acts that harm people. Laws require people to do certain things, such as pay taxes.



Many books explain legal topics. Many books explain how to do genealogical research. Genealogy and the Law combines these two perspectives. Written jointly by a genealogist and an attorney, it guides genealogists and family historians in finding and understanding laws and legal concepts that throw light on events and solve problems that arise in the course of their genealogical research.



Chapters cover legal terminology, types of law, how to find pertinent laws, sources to search, places to do legal research, citation of legal sources, and application of law to ancestral events. Quizzes at the end of each chapter help the reader review and apply the contents of the chapter.