For a long period of history, lack of access to the land has been seen as one of the most decisive factors in preventing the marriage of large parts of the rural population. This volume offers an up-to-date discussion of the interaction between inheritance practices, marriage and the household formation of those who inherited as well as of those who were excluded from inheriting the family farm or part of it. It considers to what extent and for which reasons significant differences in inheritance patterns and in the structure of rural households can be observed in Europe right up to the present. This volume focuses on impartible as well as partible inheritance and examines how the timing of property transfer, modes of transfer (ante-mortem or post-mortem) and also retirement practices gave rise to many different strategies which differed widely not only in semi-subsistence, seignorial economies, but also in highly market-oriented economies.