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  1. #1
    Valued member of Brit-Gen barbara lee's Avatar
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    Default What is "Placing a mortgage"? (Brooklyn 1940)

    In the Brooklyn Daily Eagle of Saturday 12th October 1940 was this notice.



    I am interested in Margaret M Donahoe, and wonder whether she was buying a house, selling a house, or something else. It's just the US terminology that I don't understand.
    The most likely thing in the circumstances is that she was selling. In 1940 Margaret was a single woman in her early thirties with two unmarried brothers, all still living in the family home, which was 545 94th Street. Their widowed mother had died a few month before, so Margaret was taking charge. An earlier census had showed the mother as the owner of that property (but perhaps with a mortgage taken out by their father who had died between 1910 and 1920).
    Is the turn of phrase "placing a mortgage" familiar to US members?

  2. #2
    Super Moderator christanel's Avatar
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    If the unencumbered property was left to the three children when the mother died it may be that Margaret was taking out a mortgage to enable her to buy out her two brothers so she alone owned the property. Did she remain at that address?
    Mortgages placed may just mean there was now a mortgage on the property in her name.
    Christina
    Sometimes paranoia is just having all the facts.
    William Burroughs

  3. #3
    Valued member of Brit-Gen barbara lee's Avatar
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    Thanks Christina
    So you interpret "placing a mortgage" as what I would call "taking out a mortgage" i.e. borrowing money from a bank, a building society or a savings and loan in order to purchase a property. But could it be she was selling the family home on behalf of her brothers and sisters? (There were some married ones as well as the two lads still at home.)
    Margaret herself married at around this time (an online tree suggests she was married before the publication date of this paper) and two years later she was "Mrs Margaret M Berry of Nebraska".
    The circumstances suggest she would have been selling, which is why I am querying the terminology.

  4. #4
    Super Moderator christanel's Avatar
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    Hi Barbara
    As it is the South Brooklyn Savings and Loan Association that has placed this information in the newspaper I read it that they are telling anyone who may be interested that the property now has a mortgage on it. I can't see why she would need to apply for a mortgage if she was selling it, if the property was clear of debt. if it wasn't clear of debt maybe the mortgage was being transferred to her name.
    One scenario may be she applied for the mortgage because the mother/siblings owed monies to the public authorities (eg council rates) and these needed to be cleared before the property was sold. Just guesswork of course.
    Christina
    Sometimes paranoia is just having all the facts.
    William Burroughs

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