The first I learned about these kinds of leases based on the landholder's life or lives was in a lecture given by a professional Salt Lake City genealogist on landholding in Scotland--leases for three lives, for example. I have not memorized all this but generally in my large genealogical library, I head for the reference books to see what I can learn. The Oxford Dictionary and the Encyclopedia Brittanica (old ones at least) sometimes give this information. Black's Law Dictionary is another good source for real estate terms. Possibly there is something on the internet to guide you. On a trip long ago, I remember seeing a big sign in Dublin, Ireland, something about liver. I giggled to myself until I remembered the lecture on Scottish landholding and thought, Oh, yes, liver has something to do with the insurance the company was advertising. If you cannot find material about these *leases for three lives* and *the longest liver,* ask your public librarian to help you find some material on the holding of land in Scotland. Or--call early in the morning, depending on your time zone, to the British desk at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City and ask if there is a specialist on duty who knows about land-holding in Scotland. Just a tip! In genealogy, you don't need to know all the answers. What you need to do is try to find out WHO or WHAT may give you some guidelines. The Source, the Redbook, Hone's book (some critical of this) on Land and Property, etc. may give you enough guidelines to understand all this. If you live in Virginia, a call to the reference desk for genealogy may help solve your problem. E.W.Wallace a hugger of reference books (and increasingly google.com)