North Carolina Research : Genealogy and Local History / Helen F. M.
Leary, ed. Raleigh : North Carolina Genealogical Society, 1996
Notes from book.
STRATEGY FOR LAND RECORDS
Legal background:
Age limitations. Although a man could buy or be granted land before he
was 21, he could not sell it in his own name.
Gender limitations. A single woman or a widow could buy land and, if 21
or over, sell it herself, but before 1868 a married woman normally could
not all the land a wife owned before marriage or inherited during it
came under her husbands control the 1868 NC Constitution recognized
the right of married women to own separate property, and more liberal
laws were passed thereafter. During the colonial period, a married woman
who had been declared feme sole by the court could buy land and sell
it in her own name.
Dower limitations. Between 1784 and 1868, NC law provided that a widows
dower right extended only to lifetime possession of a third of the real
estate her husband owned when he died. This is unlike the dower laws of
colonial NC and those of other states, which provided that the wife had
a third dower interest in all lands her husband owned at any time during
the marriage her dower release was needed for him to convey clear
title to any of it. So, until the colonial system was reinstated in 1868
(effective in 1869) the appearance of the wifes name or signature on a
deed, or a statement appended to it that she had expressed her agreement
to the sale, normally indicates that 1) the land had come into the
family through her (usually by inheritance) and her release was needed
to clear title ; or 2) the grantors or the grantees were recent
immigrants from a state or county where the colonial form of dower was
still in effect and habit sparked the release ; or 3) the lady was not
the sellers wife, she was his mother, releasing her dower right of
possession to a third of the tract being sold (i.e., it had been her
husbands before his death).
Recordation limitations. Land might pass by inheritance through several
generations without being mentioned in deed books, because 1) a will or
court-ordered land division transferred title directly without the need
for a deed ; and 2) during the colonial period land could pass to the
oldest son under the rule of primogeniture or under the terms of an
entil.
Notes from book.
North Carolina Research : Genealogy and Local History / Helen F. M.
Leary, ed. Raleigh : North Carolina Genealogical Society, 1996