New York State Commissioners of the Land Office Register of Petitions and Correspondence Related to Escheated Lands

Chronological.

Laws of 1890, Chapter 279 recognized the persisting legal interest in escheated real property of any person who could have inherited ("succeeded by devise") the property except for the fact of "his alienage (non-citizenship) or a legal incapacity to take or convey the property so escheated." Legal incapacity did not include "infancy or mental incompetency," but such incapacity was not defined in the statute.

At any time within forty years after escheat of real property, a person who possessed or had acquired legal interest in the escheated property could make a petition to the Commissioners of the Land Office, which would hold a hearing on the matter. Their determination in favor of the petitioner would result in "release to the petitioner of any interest in real property escheated to the state." The release took the form of a conveyance by the commissioners to the petitioner. A public notice of the hearing by the commissioners was required. Other persons having an interest in the escheated property could file with the Secretary of State a "protest" stating his objections to the petition. The protest was to include the name, residence, and post office address of the protestor, and the Secretary was to forward the protest to the commissioners.

The exact purpose for which this volume was used is unclear, but it very possibly documents communications between the Commissioners of the Land Office and parties with interest in real property escheated to the state. The volume includes three columns of information, none of which is identified by column heading. Two columns list names of individuals and the third column lists the name and address of a financial institution, law firm, or county clerk. The individuals could be parties with conflicting interest in an escheated property, while the institutions likely represented involved parties or possessed legal interest in the property itself.

Records were transferred to the New York State Library from the Department of State on March, 1948.

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