A courtesy is, generally speaking, a showing of politeness from one person to another. Curtesy is different. Curtesy is the potential life interest or life estate that a husband may have in the real estate of his wife after her decease. If you see a husband on a deed relinquishing his right of curtesy, it suggests that the wife was the one in the marital couple who obtained the property.

And determining how she did that (purchase, inheritance from family member, via a previous husband) could provide genealogically relevant information.

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