You might ask from reading that subject line what does THAT have specifically to do with Geigers! Well I will tell you. Last night a couple messages were posted on this list about Christian Geiger and his son George Geiger from whom listmember Helene Pockrus descends. As a part of the early research into this line it was learned that George Geiger in 1779 inherited the farm in Lancaster County, PA, that I wrote about last night in my message to this list. He sold that land in January, 1783 and moved to Shenandoah County, Virginia. He purchased land there in the same month--January, 1783. There is NO doubt both George Geigers are one and the same person. In the Virginia deed George is identified as being from Lancaster County, PA, and the witnesses to the deed include George's wife Barbara Kline's brother-in-law John Bowman/Baughman, and Johannes Huber--Christian Geiger's next door neighbor in Lancaster County and the man who purchased Christian's farm from George Geiger. This proves conclusively that we are talking about the same George in VA as the one who left PA. The only problem is--Barbara Kline Geiger signed (by mark X) the deed selling the land in Lancaster County but she is not mentioned at all in the Virginia deed of the same month. For a long time it was thought that this was some indication that Barbara might have died that month. We had seen the name of Catherine Beeler tossed around as being maybe a second wife for George Geiger--but we now can rule that thought out. I have recently learned that it was the law in colonial times that a man could buy up all the land he wanted to and his wife had no say--nor did she have to sign any papers. However, he could NOT sell any property without his wife's consent. This came about to protect the wife. A husband would not be able to run off with another woman and sell his property, leaving his wife and children penniless. This had to do with a wife's "dower rights." This was her entitlement by virtue of being a wife to a certain portion of her husband's estate. This is the reason that Barbara Kline Geiger in NOT named in any way on the Virginia deed which involved a land purchase but IS named in (and signed) the PA deed selling land. The estate papers Barbara later signed in Dauphin County, PA in resolving her father's estate, prove she was living many years after George purchased the VA land. It is most likely that she died not too long before George's second marriage in 1793 to Anna Creek Artz/Ortz, widow. It also helps us to understand that Barbara, and not some second wife, was the mother of the two children for whom we have no baptismal records--Jacob and George, Jr. Joan