Common Words found in Genealogical Research

 

Thank you to Marlene Trader Molisee - mmolisee@ameritech.net for submitting and Barb Rogers - BRogers153@aol.com for typing!

ABSTRACT-

Summary of important points of a given text, especially deeds and wills

ADMINISTRATOR-

A person appointed by the court to administer the estate of an incompetent person or an intestate who differs from an executor in that he is court appointed whereas the executor is appointed by the deceased.

ADMINISTRATIX-

A female administrator

ADOPTION-

To take into one's family through legal means and raise as one's own child.

ADOPTION BY BAPTISM-

A spiritual affinity contracted between godfathers and godchildren in the baptism ceremony, and entitled the godchild to a share of the godfathers estate.

ADOPTION BY MATRIMONY-

The act of taking the children of a spouse's former marriage as one's own upon marriage.

ADOPTION BY TESTAMENT-

To appoint a person heir if he follows the stipulations in the will to take the name, arms, etc. of the adopter

ALIEN-

Foreign born person

ANCESTORS-

Person from whom you are descended in a direct line.

APPURTENANCES-

The rights, duties, and perquisites of one who held manorial land - usually, grazing rights, payment of fines, submission to the manorial court, and a pew in church.

ARCHIVES-

Reference to the storage of older records.

ASCENDANT-

Ancestor

BANNS-

Publication or posting of intended marriages, published for three consecutive Sundays prior to the event.

BASTARD-

An illegitimate child; born out of wedlock.

BENEFICIARY-

One who receives benefit of trust of property

BEQUEST-

A gift, personal property or money handed down in a will.

BORN IN THE COVENANT-

In LDS records, one born to a couple who has been sealed in marriage, and thus is sealed to the parents.

CENSUS-

Official listing or counting of persons; the Federal Census has been taken every 10 years since 1790; there also are state censuses in some states which may have been taken every 5 to 10 years.

CENSUS INDEX-

Alphabetical listing of names enumerated in a census.

CERTIFIED COPY-

A copy made and attested to by officers having charge of the original and authorized to give copies.

CHRISTEN-

To receive or initiate into the visible church by baptism, to name at baptism, to give a name to

CIRCA-

About or approximately, usually used in front of a date or year.

COAT OF ARMS-

Shield with certain distinctive symbols or emblems painted on it in definite fixed colors identifying one person and his direct descendants.

CODICIL-

A supplement to a will.

COLLATERAL ANCESTOR-

Relatives descended from the same ancestors, but in a different line (aunts, uncles, cousins, those not in your direct line.

COMMON ANCESTOR-

Ancestor shared by two people.

COMMON LAW MARRIAGE-

A marriage without ceremony, civil or ecclesiastical, which may or may not be recognized as a legal marriage.

COUSIN

[1] A child of one's aunt or uncle; also called first cousin; [2] A relative descended from a common ancestor, such as a grandparent, by two or more steps in a diverging line; [3] A relative by blood or marriage; a kinsman or kinswoman; [4] A member of a kindred group or country.

DECEDANT-

A deceased person.

DECLARATION OF INTENTION-

First papers filed in the naturalization process, stating that the person wants to become a citizen.

DEGREE OF A RELATIONSHIP-

The distance between two persons related by blood - under Canon Law (used in most states) two persons who descend from a common ancestor, but not one from the other (brother, cousins, etc.) have a collateral consanguinity and a degree of relationship of the same number as the number of generations the furthest is removed from the closest common progenitor; for example, an uncle and nephew are related in the second degree because the nephew is two generations from the common ancestor (his grandfather and his uncle's father); two brothers are related in the first degree and first cousins are related to each other in the second degree; in linial relationships (direct lines) each generation is a degree.

DESCENDANT-

One whose ancestry can be traced to a particular individual.

DESCENDANT CHART-

Graphic document that shows descendants of a source couple for a specified number of generations.

DEVISE-

To give real property by will.

DEVISEE-

The person to whom real property is left in a will.

DIRECT LINE-

Descent from an ancestor through succeeding children.

DISTRICT LAND PLATT BOOK-

Maps which show location of the land patentee.

DISTRICT LAND TRACT BOOK-

Books which list individual entries by range and township.

EMIGRANT-

One who leaves one country or region to settle in another.

ENUMERATION-

The process by which persons are counted for purposes of a census.

ESTATE-

The whole of one's possessions; especially all the property left by a deceased person.

EXECUTOR-

The individual appointed by the one making the will to dispose of his or her property after death in accordance with the terms of the will.

EXECUTRIX-

A female executor.

FAMILY HISTORY LIBRARY (FHL)-

Of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) located in Salt Lake City has the world's largest collection of genealogical information.

FAMILY HISTORY CENTER (FHS)-

Located in may towns throughtout the United States, these are local research centers where one may access the information of FHL through the use of microfilm, microfiche and computers.

FORBID THE BANNS-

Public or formal objection to a marriage.

GEDCOM-

Acronym for GEnealogical Data COMmunication; file format supported by most genealogy database programs for the exchange of genealogy information between different programs and computers.

GENEALOGY-

A study of family history and descent.

GIVEN NAME-

Name given to a person at birth, or baptism - ones first and middle names.

GUARDIAN-

Person appointed to care for and manage property of a minor, orphan, or adult incompetant of managing his own affairs.

HEIRS-

Those entitled by law or by the terms of a will to inherit property from another.

HOLOGRAPHIC WILL-

One written entirely in the testators own handwriting.

HOMESTEAD-

The house and adjoining land where the head of the family lives, which passes to the widow when her husband dies and is exempt from the claims of his creditors; this is similiar to a widow's dower, the difference being that the homestead includes the dwelling.

HOMESTEAD ACT-

Any of several legislative acts authorizing the sale of public land.

ILLEGITIMATE-

Born to a mother who was not married to the childs father.

IMMIGRANT-

One who settles in a country having emigrated from another.

INSTRUMENT-

A formal document such as a deed or a will.

IN-LAW-

Colonists used this term for any familiar relationship that occurred from a marriage; a woman's father-inlaw could be her husband's father or her stepfather; her son-in-law could be her daughter's husband or her own stepson.

ISSUE-

Offspring, children, lineal descendants of a common ancestor.

LEGACY-

Similar to a bequest, although it often has the meaning of money, whereas bequest usually means personal property.

LEGATEE-

The person to whom a gift is given or left to in a will; a person receiving real or personal property by will.

LEGATOR-

A person who makes a will and leaves property to others.

LIEN-

A claim against property as security for payment of a debt.

LINEAGE-

[1] direct descent from a particular ancestor; ancestry [2] the descendants of a common ancestor considered to be the founder of the line.

LINEAL CONSANGUINITY-

Being descended in a direct line from another such as son, father and grandfather.

MAIDEN NAME-

A females last name or surname before marriage.

MICROFILM-

A reproduction of documents on film at a reduced size.

MIGRANT-

A person who moves from place to place to search for work.

MIGRATE-

To move from one county, state, or region to another.

MULATTO-

The offspring of one white and one black parent - somtimes used, especially on census schedules, for Indians.

MUSTER OUT-

A discharge from military service.

NAMESAKE-

Person named after another person.

NATURALIZATION-

The process of becoming a citizen of the U.S..

NATURALIZE

To grant full citizenship to one of foreign birth.

NECROLOGY-

A listing of obituaries, as in a newspaper; records of death.

NEE-

Born; usually refers to a woman's maiden name.

NEPHEW-

A son of one's brother or sister; also an illegitimate son of an eccleasiastic, a niece, or a male or female grandchild.

NIECE-

A daughter of one's brother or sister; sometimes, granddaughter; (pre-senenteenth century England) any descendant, male or female, and occasionally, any younger relative.

NUNCUPATIVE WILL-

Oral will which, to be valid, must be given by a person in their last hours, witnessed by two or more witnesses, and written within a period of six to twelve days.

NOW WIFE-

Exclusively found in wills, this term implied that there was a former wife.

OBIT-

[Latin] died without issue.

OBITUARY-

Published notice of a death, sometimes with a brief biography of the deceased.

PASSENGER LISTS-

Names and information of passengers who arrived by ship, often including their age, sex, occupation, place of origin.

PATERNAL-

Related to one's father. Paternal grandmother is the father's mother.

PATRONYMIC-

In strict usage, a name formed by the addition of a prefix or suffix indicating sonship or other relationship to the name of one's father or paternal ancestors, as Johnson (son of John), MacDonald (son of Donald), etc.

PEDIGREE CHART-

Graphic document that begins with one person and moves backward in time, showing the parents of each person in the tree.

PENSIONER-

One who receives a pension.

PROBATE-

Having to do with wills and the administration of estates.

PROGENY-

The issue or descendants of a common ancestor.

PROGENITOR

An originator of a line of descent, frequently used in reference to the immigrant ancestor.

PROLES-

Offspring.

PROVED-

Documents such as wills, deeds, bills of sale, etc., having their accuracy and honesty attested to through legal proceedings in a court of law.

QUADROON-

A child of a mulatto and a white; a child with one black grandparent.

RELICT-

A widow or widower; the surviving spouse

SIBLING-

A brother or sister

SOCIAL SECURITY DEATH INDEX-

An index of records containing names of deceased Social Security recipients whose relatives applied for Social Security Death Benefits after their passing which includes the individual's name and Soundex code, birthdate, death date, and Social Security.

SOUNDEX-

A card index system prepared by the Works Progress Administration for the federal censuses; names are arranged by letter and number codes according to the sounds of their consonants; thus, even if a name is misspelled or spelled in an unexpected way, it can often be located in the Soundex index.

SPOUSE-

A husband or wife.

STATUE-

Law

STEERAGE-

A section in a passenger ship for those paying the lowest fare.

SURNAME-

The last or family name that a person bears in common with others in his/her family.

TAIL-

An estate which does not descend to heirs generally, but to the heirs of the donee's body in a direct line if the posterity continues in a regular order and upon the death of the first owner without issue the estate is terminated.

TESTAMENTARY-

Referring to, given by, or appointed by a will.

TESTAMENTARY BOND-

Security posted with the court by the executor of an estate to insure that the wishes of the deceased be followed.

TESTAMENTUM-

[Latin] will; testament

TESTATE-

Having a valid will upon death.

TESTATOR-

The person who makes a will.

TESTATRIX-

A female who leaves a valid will.

TOWNSHIP-

A division of US public land that contains 36 sections or 36 square miles. A subdivision of the county.

TRADITION-

The handing down of statements, beliefs, legends, customs, and genealogies from generation to generation.

UNDERGROUND RAILROAD-

The system which took slaves to freedom in fourteen Northern states by 1830, and about 50,000 between 1840 and 1860.

WARD-

Chiefly the division of a city for election purposes.

WILL-

A document declaring how a person wants his property divided after his death.

WITNESS-

One who is present at a transaction, such as, the sale of land or the signing of a Will, who can testify or affirm that the event actually took place.

 

 

 

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