In Catalonia the hereditary system envisaged that the eldest son in the family would inherit. When there was no male heir, the oldest daughter would inherit, and was then called the pubilla. This circumstance allowed the possibility of an heir and an heiress marrying, which would result in the unification of their patrimonies. According to traditional historiography, this was one explanation of the concentration of rural patrimonies. This article demonstrates that the heir–heiress wedding was not the most often chosen scenario, however, and looks again at the options that families had to consider, according to their circumstances, when a daughter was the heir, and at the results of their choices.