I thought it was rather odd that my great-grandfather put all of his real estate holdings in his wife's name in the late 1800 early 1900s. Actually, he didn't put it in her name. She WAS the grantee outright. This was in St. Louis County, Missouri.

Lo and behold, when I moved to the Northern and began doing title research for people, I ran into the same thing--quite often in fact.

I am sure there is a logical explanation for this, and I am ASSUMING (not a good idea) it had to do with homestead exemptions and/or bankruptcy law. As far as I know, however, neither my great-grandparents nor some of the people I've run into here in the Northern Neck were remotely facing bankruptcy.

I am hoping one or several of our several experts on this list can shed some light on this.

Craig Kilby
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