Women and Property – What is a Private Examination?
by Lamora Lucia Haidar
A law intended to protect the property rights of married women may preserve fascinating genealogical clues about your female ancestors and relations
Do you have a “Private Examination” in your collection of land records for your ancestors? You might want to consider looking up the case law in the state or territory to understand how this impacted the participants in the transaction. The Private Examination clause was appended to conveyances in most states until the passage of Married Women’s Property Acts by individual states in the middle of the 19th century.
