Daily AncestorReal estate
Real estate, or real property, is land and whatever is permanently attached to it, such as houses, barns and trees.
Real estate means land and what is fixed to it: buildings, fences, timber, minerals. Older records call it real property, realty or lands and tenements. The census asked for its value in 1850, 1860 and 1870.
The law treated real and personal property differently: land was devised by will and inherited by heirs, while goods went to the executor or administrator to settle debts.
As seen in a recordColumn of the 1860 census
Value of real estate owned: 1200
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Daily Ancestor. "Real estate." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/legal-land/real-estate. Last checked 2026-10-01.