Sara said: Date: Saturday, February 20, 1999 4:45 PM Subject: Legal Age >....Does anyone know of a good book that explains the >legalities of the 18th century and whether or not they changed after the Rev >War. "The Source" edited by Eakle and Cerni, published by Ancestry Publishing Co. 1984, contains a chart of "Ages of Legal Action" on page 186. From this chart, *in general,* the legal action of "being taxed" or "in possession of" required a male to be at least age 16, females appear in the original records as "heirs of...." However, there were exceptions and laws varied amongst the states. Another precaution, *United States* laws dated from 1776 as the earliest year, including the state of Virginia. *English Law* or *Common Law* would need to be researched for the pre-Rev War period making for a complicated process. The printed laws of several American colonies are published in 18 volumes by Michael Glazier, Inc., available in many law libraries. A 1997 revision of "The Source," edited by Szucs and Luebking is available at the following link: http://www.ancestry.com/home/source/srcindex.htm This on-line source contains *many* answers and pointers for genealogists. Neil McDonald