My understanding of Quit Claims is they were used by expected heirs who were
moving on to settle the land in the hands of an heir who stayed behind. If you
notice frequently when a family moved, it was another family member who
bought their land. Often a son-in-law. But the person buying the quit claim did not
own land but was buying a future interest in the land that was to come to the
seller by the death of the owner. When primogenitor ended in the mid 1780 all
heirs had a claim to the estate. The widow got her third and the rest divided
the remainder. Each state made it's own laws and they should always be
checked for the details. Something I have not seen mentioned in this discussion is
Hennings Statues at Large for Virginia. It can now be purchased for under
$50.00 on a CD-ROM and is a wonderful source for the laws of Colonial Virginia

Margaret R. Amundson, CGsm is a service mark of the Board for Certification
of Genealogists, used under license by Board-certified associates after
periodic proficiency evaluations.

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