My guess my previous answer botched it. I'm not sure what is meant by "property." Again it sort of depends on the local usage at the time, because the term is inexact, at best, varies from place to place, and morphs over time. Sorry if that doesn't clear things up, it's a little confusing. But I think you're still confusing the dowery (personal articles a young woman made or was given by her family prior to marriage) with dower rights, where were the unripened rights she gained upon getting married. Again, my recollection is fuzzy, but if I recall correctly the rights were called inchoate rights, that is rights which hadn't matured yet because some event (the death of a woman's husband here) hasn't happened yet. I don't recall if they were enforceable before they matured, but guess probably not. The rights are a function of the marriage, which if ended by means other than death would probably be extinguished. Ordinarily a daughter wouldn't get dower rights from her family. A dowery (bedding, kitchen thingies and the like) yes, for sure, if she and her husband were fortunate. Dower, no. I believe dower rights are part of the package one gets she weds without a pre-nuptial agreement, which ripen on the death of a womans husband. That makes sense if I understand what you're looking into, because -over time- a girl would bring her dowery to a marriage, and once married gain inchoate dower rights, waived or tinkered with after the wedding perhaps, followed by a will which would probably have written assuming the rights of the wife had been waived (unless it had been forgotten). Gotta run, and not sure how much this helps, but drop me a line if things are still murky. I guess I need to add here that this is not legal advice, and we have not entered into an attorney-client relationship, and that you should seek competent legal help to review the situation. Sorry, this has gone into more detail than I'm competent to address, so please don't rely on my recollection. I am not now, nor have I ever been licensed in Ct. I'm just a newbie to this list with family from Ct on both my and my bride's side trying to get the lay of the land. Surely there's a Ct. Attorney with a better background in real property and marital law out there lurking that can correct me where I'm wrong. We know you're out there. Come out with your hands up and nobody will get hurt...... Best, R -----Original Message----- From: "[email protected]" <[email protected]> Sent: 10/16/2004 12:23 To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [GenCT] Question on Dowery Rights he had her sign away her 'dower' rights, leaving with that which her husband had mentioned in the Will but none of the property ........ So Dower Rights could come from the husband. The Rights in the case I mentioned were given up long before her husband ever wrote his will. Do you think that means her dower rights came from another source? I.E. her father or other member of her family? EC