March 20, 2015

Did wives own property outright in 1870s?

I was surprised after examining the published probate notices for Mary Watson Rider of Orleans County, NY to find that her husband was still alive, but not listed as "kin". Intitially I thought he had predeceased her and that she was passing on their real and personal property to her family members. No one on his side of the family was named in Mary's probate filings. 

Mary and Job Rider lived in Murray, Orleans County at the end of their lives. They had been farming in Cortland and Monroe counties before showing up in Orleans in the 1875 census. It does appear that Mary's probate process dragged on for some time following her death in November 1878.  Job died the following summer and his probate notices listed many, many people in numerous New York counties and as far flung as Wisconsin and Alabama. Their probate notices were published repeatedly in The Holley Standard newspaper.

Not one person appeared as heirs of both Mary and Job. I thought that seemed a bit a strange.

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