It’s a basic theme of The Legal Genealogist: to understand the records, we have to understand the law. And not just the law in general, but the law of the time and the place where the records were created. It sounds like it should be easy, until we come face to face with the reality that every family’s records are chock full of legal lingo that can appear utterly baffling to even an experienced genealogist.
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| Daniel Boone, in D.M. Kelsey, Our Pioneer Heroes and Daring Deeds... (Philadelphia: Scammell & Co., 1888), 194. |
So what’s a researcher to do? How does a genealogist figure out what’s meant by a trespass vis et armis? Or what the difference is between debt and detinue, or between assumpsit and covenant? Or what’s meant when the document is a writ of mandamus, or certiorari, or habeas corpus?
That what session T251–"Living With Legal Lingo through the Records of Missouri’s Boone Family," is all about. Come join me Thursday, 4 p.m. and we’ll try to come up with ways to overcome the language barrier we have with legal records. We’re going to use some really fun records – the records of Daniel Boone and Missouri’s Boone family–to explore the ins and outs of the weird lingo of the law, and the resources that can help us all understand the terms and get the most out of the records.
“To the victor go the spoils,” so the saying goes. And the grateful Union rewarded its soldiers and their families with pensions after the Civil War. Some of them, that is, if they could prove they were eligible for a pension.
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| Ambrotype, Unidentified young soldier in Union uniform with bayoneted musket, knapsack, and knife, 1861-1865, Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. |
Who was eligible, what proof had to be submitted, even how much money was involved changed with time, and it all stemmed from a series of laws passed by the United States Congress starting in 1862. In session S403–"The Law in Yankee Blue: Federal Military Pensions after the Civil War," at 8 a.m. Saturday, we’ll look at the law governing pensions for Union soldiers, their widows, children, and even parents and brothers and sisters. Coupled with Julie Miller’s review of Civil War pension files in session W141, "Anatomy of a Military Pension" at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday, you’ll have everything you need to find and use the records of a Union pension.
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| Photographic copy of ambrotype, Portrait of a Confederate soldier?, 1860-1865 [re-photographed 1961], Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. |
But the Confederacy’s loss didn't mean that the soldiers, widows and orphans of the South were left uncared for. Every single former Confederate state — plus the border states of Missouri and Oklahoma — offered some pension or other benefit to former Confederate soldiers or their families, creating a host of records for today’s genealogists to use. We’ll go on in session S413–"The Law in Confederate Grey: State Military Pensions after the War of Northern Aggression," at 9:30 a.m. Saturday, to learn about state laws and pensions for our ancestors on the southern side of the Mason-Dixon line.
*CG or Certified Genealogist and CGL or Certified Genealogical Lecturer is a service mark of the Board for Certification of Genealogists, used under license by Board-certified genealogists after periodic competency evaluation, and the board name is registered in the US Patent & Trademark Office.
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