ABSTRACT – Summary of important points of a given text, especially deeds and wills.
ACRE – See measurements.
ADMINISTRATION (of estate) – The collection, management and distribution of an estate by proper legal process.
ADMINISTRATOR (of estate) – Person appointed to manage or divide the estate of a deceased person.
ADMINISTRATRIX – A female administrator.
AFFIDAVIT – A statement in writing, sworn to before proper authority.
ALIEN – Foreigner.
AMERICAN REVOLUTION – U.S. war for independence from Great Britain 1775 – 1783.
ANCESTOR – A person from whom you are descended; a forefather.
ANTE – Latin prefix meaning before, such as in ante-bellum South, “The South before the war”
APPRENTICE – One who is bound by indentures or by legal agreement or by any means to serve another person for a certain time, with a view of learning an art or trade.
APPURTENANCE – That which belongs to something else such as a building, orchard, right of way, etc.
ARCHIVES – Records of a government, organization, institution; the place where records are stored.
ATTEST – To affirm; to certify by signature or oath.
BANNS – Public announcement of intended marriage.
BENEFICIARY – One who receives benefit of trust or property.
BEQUEATH – To give personal property to a person in a will. Noun — bequest.
BOND – Written, signed, witnessed agreement requiring payment of a specified amount of money on or before a given date.
BOUNTY LAND WARRANT – A right to obtain land, specific number of acres of unallocated public land, granted for military service.
CENSUS – Official enumeration, listing or counting of citizens.
CERTIFIED COPY – A copy made and attested to by officers having charge of the original and authorized to give copies.
CHAIN – See measurements.
CHATTEL – Personal property which can include animate as well as inanimate properties.
CHRISTEN – To receive or initiate into the visible church by baptism; to name at baptism; to give a name to.
CIRCA – About, near, or approximate — usually referring to a date.
CIVIL WAR – War between the States; war between North and South, 1861 – 65.
CODICIL – Addition to a will.
COLLATERAL ANCESTOR – Belong to the same ancestral stock but not in direct line of descent; opposed to lineal such as aunts, uncles & cousins.
COMMON ANCESTOR – Ancestor shared by any two people.
CONFEDERATE – Pertaining to the Southern states which seceded from the U.S. in 1860 – 1, their government and their citizens.
CONSANGUINITY – Blood relationship.
CONSORT – Usually, a wife whose husband is living
CONVEYANCE – See deed.
COUSIN – Relative descended from a common ancestor, but not a brother or sister.
DAUGHTER-IN-LAW – Wife of one’s son.
DECEASED – Dead.
DECEDENT – A deceased person.
DECLARATION OF INTENTION – First paper, sworn to and filed in court, by an alien stating that he wants to be come a citizen.
DEED – A document by which title in real property is transferred from one party to another.
DEPOSITION – A testifying or testimony taken down in writing under oath of affirmation in reply to interrogatories, before a competent officer to replace to oral testimony of a witness.
DEVISE – Gift of real property by will.
DEVISEE – One to whom real property (land) is given in a will.
DEVISOR – One who gives real property in a will.
DISSENTER – One who did not belong to the established church, especially the Church of England in the American colonies.
DISTRICT LAND OFFICE PLAT BOOK – Books or rather maps which show the location of the land patentee.
DISTRICT LAND OFFICE TRACT BOOK – Books which list individual entries by range and township.
DOUBLE DATING – A system of double dating used in England and America from 1582-1752 because it was not clear as to whether the year commenced January 1 or March 25
DOWER – Legal right or share which a wife acquired by marriage in the real estate of her husband, allotted to her after his death for her lifetime.
EMIGRANT – One leaving a country and moving to another.
ENUMERATION – Listing or counting , such as a census.
EPITAPH – An inscription on or at a tomb or grave in memory of the one buried there.
ESCHEAT – The reversion of property to the state when there are no qualified heirs.
ESTATE – All property and debts belonging to a person.
ET AL – Latin for “and others”.
ET UX – Latin for “and wife”.
ET UXOR – And his wife. Sometimes written simply Et Ux.
EXECUTOR – One appointed in a will to carry out its provisions. Female Executrix
FATHER-IN-LAW – Father of one’s spouse.
FEE – An estate of inheritance in land, being either fee simple or fee tail. An estate in land held of a feudal lord on condition of the performing of certain services.
FEE SIMPLE – An absolute ownership without restriction.
FEE TAIL – An estate of inheritance limited to lineal descendant heirs of a person to whom it was granted.
FRANKLIN, STATE OF – An area once known but never officially recognized and was under consideration from 1784 – 1788 from the western part of North Carolina.
FRATERNITY – Group of men (or women) sharing a common purpose or interest.
FREE HOLD – An estate in fee simple, in fee tail, or for life.
FRIEND – Member of the Religious Society of Friends; a Quaker.
FURLONG – See measurements.
GAZETTEER – A geographical dictionary; a book giving names and descriptions of places usually in alphabetical order.
GENEALOGY – Study of family history and descent.
GENTLEMAN – A man well born.
GIVEN NAME – Name given to a person at birth or baptism, one’s first and middle names.
GLEBE – Land belonging to a parish church.
GRANTEE – One who buys property or receives a grant.
GRANTOR – One who sells property or makes a grant.
GREAT-AUNT – Sister of one’s grandparent
GREAT-UNCLE – Brother of one’s grandparent.
GUARDIAN – Person appointed to care for and manage property of a minor orphan or an adult incompetent of managing his own affairs.
HALF BROTHER/HALF SISTER – Child by another marriage of one’s mother or father; the relationship of two people who have only one parent in common.
HEIRS – Those entitled by law or by the terms of a will to inherit property from another.
HOLOGRAPHIC WILL – One written entirely in the testator’s own handwriting.
HOMESTEAD ACT – Law passed by Congress in 1862 allowing a head of a family to obtain title to 160 acres of public land after clearing and improving it for 5 years.
HUGUENOT – A French Protestant in the 16th and 17th centuries. One of the reformed or calvinistic communion who were driven by the thousands into exile in England, Holland, Germany and America.
ILLEGITIMATE – Born to a mother who was not married to the child’s father.
IMMIGRANT – One moving into a country from another.
INDENTURE – Today it means a contract in 2 or more copies. Originally made in 2 parts by cutting or tearing a single sheet across the middle in a jagged line so the two parts may later be matched.
INDENTURED SERVANT – One who bound himself into service of another person for a specified number of years, often in return for transportation to this country.
INFANT – Any person not of full age; a minor.
INSTANT – Of or pertaining to the current month. (Abbreviated inst.)
INTESTATE – One who dies without a will or dying without a will.
INVENTORY – An account, catalog or schedule, made by an executor or administrator of all the goods and chattels and sometimes of the real estate of a deceased person.
ISSUE – Offspring; children; lineal descendants of a common ancestor.
LATE – Recently deceased.
LEASE – An agreement which creates a landlord – tenant situation.
LEGACY – Property or money left to someone in a will
LEGISLATURE – Lawmaking branch of state or national government; elected group of lawmakers.
LIEN – A claim against property as security for payment of a debt.
LINEAGE – Ancestry; direct descent from a specific ancestor.
LINEAL – Consisting of or being in as direct line of ancestry or descendants; descended in a direct line.
LINK – See measurements.
LIS PENDENS – Pending court action; usually applies to land title claims.
LODGE – A chapter or meeting hall of a fraternal organization.
LOYALIST – Tory, an American colonist who supported the British side during the American Revolution.
MAIDEN NAME – A girl’s last name or surname before she marries.
MANUSCRIPT – A composition written with the hand as an ancient book or an un-printed modern book or music.
MARRIAGE BOND – A financial guarantee that no impediment to the marriage existed, furnished by the intended bridegroom or by his friends.
MATERNAL – Related through one’s mother, such as a Maternal grandmother being the mother’s mother.
MEASUREMENTS – Link – 7.92 inches; Chain – 100 Links or 66 feet; Furlong – 1000 Links or 660 feet; Rod – 5 1/2 yds or 16 1/2 ft (also called a perch or pole); Rood – From 5 1/2 yards to 8 yards, depending on locality; Acre – 43,560 square ft or 160 square rods.
MESSUAGE – A dwelling house.
METES & BOUNDS – Property described by natural boundaries, such as 3 notches in a white oak tree, etc.
MICROFICHE – Sheet of microfilm with greatly reduced images of pages of documents.
MICROFILM – Reproduction of documents on film at reduced size.
MIGRANT – Person who moves from place to place, usually in search of work
MIGRATE – To move from one country or state or region to another. (Noun : migration)
MILITIA – Citizens of a state who are not part of the national military forces but who can be called into military service in an emergency; a citizen army, apart from the regular military forces.
MINOR – One who is under legal age; not yet a legal adult.
MISTER – In early times, a title of respect given only to those who held important civil officer or who were of gentle blood.
MOIETY – A half; an indefinite portion
MORTALITY – Death; death rate.
MORTALITY SCHEDULES – Enumeration of persons who died during the year prior to June 1 of 1850, 1860, 1870, and 1880 in each state of the United States, conducted by the bureau of census.
MORTGAGE – A conditional transfer of title to real property as security for payment of a debt.
MOTHER-IN-LAW – Mother of one’s spouse.
NAMESAKE – Person named after another person.
NECROLOGY – Listing or record of persons who have died recently
NEE – Used to identify a woman’s maiden name; born with the surname of
NEPHEW – Son of one’s brother or sister.
NIECE – Daughter of one’s brother or sister.
NONCUPATIVE WILL – One declared or dictated by the testator, usually for persons in last sickness, sudden illness, or military.
ORPHAN – Child whose parents are dead; sometimes, a child who has lost one parent by death.
ORPHAN’S COURT – Orphans being recognized as wards of the states, provisions were made for them in special courts.
PASSENGER LIST – A ships list of passengers, usually referring to those ships arriving in the US from Europe.
PATENT – Grant of land from a government to an individual.
PATERNAL – Related to one’s father. Paternal grandmother is the father’s mother.
PATRIOT – One who loves his country and supports its interests.
PEDIGREE – Family tree; ancestry.
PENSION – Money paid regularly to an individual, especially by a government as reward for military service during wartime or upon retirement from government service.
PENSIONER – One who receives a pension.
PERCH – See measurements.
POLE – See measurements.
POLL – List or record of persons, especially for taxing or voting.
POST – Latin prefix meaning after, as in post-war economy.
POSTERITY – Descendants; those who come after.
POWER OF ATTORNEY – When a person in unable to act for himself, he appoints another to act in his behalf.
PRE – Latin prefix meaning before, as in pre-war military build-up.
PRE-EMOTION RIGHTS – Right given by the federal government to citizens to buy a quarter section of land or less.
PROBATE – Having to do with wills and the administration of estates.
PROGENITOR – A direct ancestor.
PROGENY – Descendants of a common ancestor; issue.
PROVED WILL – A will established as genuine by probate court.
PROVOST – A person appointed to superintend, or preside over something.
PROXIMO – In the following month, in the month after the present one.
PUBLIC DOMAIN – Land owned by the government.
QUAKER – Member of the Religious Society of Friends.
QUITCLAIM – A deed conveying the interest of the party at that time.
RECTOR – A clergyman; the ruler or governor of a country.
RELICT – Widow; surviving spouse when one has died, husband or wife.
REPUBLIC – Government in which supreme authority lies with the people or their elected representatives.
REVOLUTIONARY WAR – U.S. war for independence from Great Britain 1775 – 1783.
ROD – See measurements.
ROOD – See measurements.
SHAKER – Member of a religious group formed in 1747 which practiced communal living and celibacy.
SIBLING – Person having one or both parents in common with another; a brother or sister.
SIC – Latin meaning thus; copied exactly as the original reads. Often suggests a mistake or surprise in the original.
SON-IN-LAW – Husband of one’s daughter.
SPINSTER – A woman still unmarried; or one who spins.
SPONSOR – A bondsman; surety.
SPOUSE – Husband or wife.
STATUTE – Law.
STEP-BROTHER / STEP-SISTER – Child of one’s step-father or step-mother.
STEP-CHILD – Child of one’s husband or wife from a previous marriage.
STEP-FATHER – Husband of one’s mother by a later marriage.
STEP-MOTHER – Wife of one’s father by a later marriage.
SURNAME – Family name or last name.
TERRITORY – Area of land owned by the united States, not a state, but having its own legislature and governor.
TESTAMENTARY – Pertaining to a will.
TESTATE – A person who dies leaving a valid will.
TESTATOR – A person who makes a valid will before his death.
TITHABLE – Taxable.
TITHE – Formerly, money due as a tax for support of the clergy or church.
TORY – Loyalist; one who supported the British side in the American Revolution.
TOWNSHIP – A division of U.S. public land that contained 36 sections, or 36 square miles. Also a subdivision of the county in many Northeastern and Midwestern states of the U.S.
TRADITION – The handing down of statements, beliefs, legends, customs, genealogies, etc. from generation to generation, especially by word of mouth.
TRANSCRIBE – To make a copy in writing.
ULTIMO – In the month before this one.
UNION – The United States; also the North during the Civil War, the states which did not secede.
VERBATIM – Word for word; in the same words, verbally.
VITAL RECORDS – Records of birth, death, marriage or divorce.
VITAL STATISTICS – Data dealing with birth, death, marriage or divorce.
WAR BETWEEN THE STATES – U.S. Civil War, 1861 – 1865.
WARD – Chiefly the division of a city for election purposes.
WILL – Document declaring how a person wants his property divided after his death.
WITNESS – One who is present at a transaction, such as a sale of land or signing of a will, who can testify or affirm that it actually took place.
WPA HISTORICAL RECORDS SURVEY – A program undertaken by the US Government 1935 – 1936 in which inventories were compiled of historical material.
YEOMAN – A servant, an attendant or subordinate official in a royal household; a subordinate of a sheriff; an independent farmer.
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