An abstract is a summary of a particular record or document. It usually contains only the most important information from the original document. Sometimes you may use abstracts instead of original documents when you do your research, and you may also create them for yourself when looking at original documents.

A person appointed by the court to settle the estate of someone who died intestate.

Ahnentafel numbers are a numbering system used to identify each individual in a family tree. For instance, say you start a family tree and you assign yourself the number 1. To find your father you would multiply 1 by 2 and for your mother you would multiply 1 by 2 and add 1 (ie. if you are looking at descendant 32, the father of 32 would be 32 x 2 = 64 and the mother would be 32 x 2 + 1 = 65.) Just remember that males are even numbered and females are odd numbered.

Land owned independently, without rent or other obligation to another. The allodial system is opposed to the fuedal system.

Your ancestors are the individuals from whom you are descended. For example, your parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, and so on are your ancestors. The term though usually refers only to deceased relatives.

Anno Domini

Many times abreviated as A.D. Anno Domini is latin for "in the year of our lord" and always follows the year as in January 1, 2000 A.D.

Appurentances

Easements, rights of way, or agreements attached to land.

Banns

Marriage banns were a religious tradition by which engaged couples had to announce their intention to marry. This announcement allowed anyone in the congregation to voice a protest. The marriage banns normally took place a few weeks before the actual marriage date, so be careful when you're looking at church records. Make sure you don't confuse the date of the marriage banns with the date of the actual wedding.

Birth Record / Certificate

A birth record or certificate contains information about the birth of an individual. On a birth record, you can usually find the mother's full maiden name and the father's full name, the name of the baby, the date of the birth, the county or province where the birth took place, the number of children that the parents have, the race of the parents, and the parents' occupations.

Bond

A bond is a contract to carry out specific duties or actions. A penalty must be paid if the duties are not carried out satisfactorily. For example, couples often made marriage bonds prior to their marriage.

Bounty Land

Bounty land was land given to military servicemen as payment for their services. If the serviceman was killed in action, his heirs could also claim bounty land.

Cemetery Records and Tombstones

Cemetery caretakers usually keep records of the names and death dates of those buried, as well as maps of the grave sites. They may also keep more detailed records, including the names of the deceased's relatives. In addition to these paper records, you will find tombstones. Tombstones can provide information such as birth and death dates and the names of other family members. The best place to find cemetery records are in the cemeteries where your ancestors are buried. Often, if there is no longer a caretaker of the cemetery, records can be found in the holdings of local libraries, archives, or historical societies. The American Blue Book of Funeral Directors is a list of cemeteries by location. It may help you create a target list of cemeteries for your ancestors if you don't know where they are buried. In addition, the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), Works Projects Administration (WPA), and the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers (DUP) have all transcribed some tombstones. Collections of transcribed tombstones can be found at the Family History Library of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) and the Library of the DAR. Also check with genealogy societies in the area where you ancestors were buried; they may know of tombstone transcriptions for local cemeteries.

Census Records

A census is an official enumeration of the population in a particular area. The United States government has conducted a census every 10 years since 1790. U.S. census records become public after 72 years (ie. This year the 1930 U.S. census will become available.) Other countries have their own rules. Census information is among the most valuable types of genealogical data. A census record relates your ancestors to a particular location at a particular time. It lists the head of the household and may list other family members as well as age, citizenship status, and ethnic background.

Church Records

Church records are the formal documents that churches have kept about their congregations through the years. Churches normally record information about christenings, baptisms, marriages, and burials. The type of information you will find in the records are the name(s) of the individual(s) involved, the date of the event, the location of the event, and the clergyman's name. You may find additional information, such as parents' names (father's full name and mother's maiden name), the names of witnesses to an event, and the individual's (or family's) place of residence.

Circa

Sometime abreviated c., ca., or circ. the term is latin for "about" as in c. 1889.

Codicil

A codicil is a document or addition at the end of a will that changes the provisions in a will. The provisions in a codicil overrule the provisions in the original will.

Connubium

A latin term meaning marriage

Cousin

Today, a cousin is normally the children of an individual's aunts and uncles. In colonial times, however, it often meant niece or nephew. When looking at older records, be careful about establishing relationships based on the word "cousin".

Daughter-In-Law

A daughter-in-law is the wife of an individual's son. Daughter-in-law also used to mean "step-daughter."

Death Records

A death record contains information about the death of an individual. On a death record, you can usually find the name of the deceased, death date, and death location. In some records you will also find information such as the cause of death and the names of the survivors. What is the best place to find death records? To request a copy of a county or state birth record, you normally need to contact the county or State Department of Health Services or Vital Records Office in the area where the event took place. Some older records are held by state archives or libraries. Churches may also have records of their members' deaths.

Declaration of Intention

A declaration of intention is a document filed in a court by an alien who intended to become a United States citizen. It could also be a declaration filed by a couple in a local court, indicating their intention to marry.

Descendant

Your descendants are your children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and so on, anyone to whom you are an ancestor.

Directories

Directories come in all types: city, telephone, county, regional, professional, religious, post office, street, ethnic, and school. The information that you can find in a directory depends on the type of directory. For example, city directories normally list names and addresses. In some city directories you can also find information such as children's names, marriage dates, death dates, and birth dates. Other types of directories may provide you with even more interesting information about your ancestors. For instance, a church directory may tell you about an individual's involvement in church activities, professional directories may give you insight into your ancestor's professional life, and club directories may contain information about your ancestor's involvement in social activities.

Double Date

No, this isn't something you did when you were a teenager. Beginning in 45 B.C., many parts of the world used the Julian calendar to mark the passage of time. According to the Julian calendar, March 25 was the first day of the year and each year was 365 days and 6 hours long. In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII determined that the Julian calendar was incorrect in that each day was just a little bit too long. This meant that the human calendar wasn't keeping up with nature's calendar, and the seasons kept arriving slightly earlier in the year. To solve the problem, Pope Gregory XIII created the Gregorian calendar. This is the calendar that is officially in use in the United States and a great part of the world. As you know, this new calendar changed the first day of the year from March 25 to January 1. Pope Gregory also had everyone jump ahead by 10 days to make up for the days that were lost when the world was using the old Julian calendar. The practice of writing double dates resulted from this switch from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar, and also from the fact that not all countries and people accepted the new calendar at the same time. For example, England and the American colonies didn't officially accept the new calendar until 1752. Before 1752, the English government still observed March 25 as the first day of the year, but most of the population observed the first day as January 1. For this reason, many people wrote dates falling between January 1 and March 25 with both years, as in the following examples.

Julian or Old Style

December 31, 1717
January 1, 1718
February 20, 1718
March 25, 1718
March 26, 1718

Gregorian or New Style

December 31, 1717
January 1, 1719
February 20, 1719
March 25, 1719
March 26, 1718

Double Date

December 31, 1717
January 1, 1718/19
February 20, 1718/19
March 25, 1718/19
March 26, 1718

By the time England and the colonies adopted the Gregorian calendar, the discrepancy between the two calendars was eleven days, instead of ten. To resolve the discrepancy, the government ordered that September 2, 1752 be followed by September 14, 1752. Some people also added 11 days to their birth dates (a fact which is not noted on their birth certificates). For a look at other dating systems and an on-line conversion chart click here.

Dower

A dower is the amount of an estate that a widow is entitled to upon the death of her husband. Under common law, it used to be that one-third of a man's estate went to his wife.

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Emigration

Emigration is when an individual leaves their home country to live in another country.

Entail

To entail is to restrict the inheritance of land to a specific group of heirs, such as an individual's sons.

Entry

Filing of the intention to obtain a land grant or patent. This was the first step of a multi-step process of getting land; the other steps usually being survey and grant.

Escheat

Land ownership reverting to the Crown, government, or estate owner because of a lack of heirs.

Executor

An executor is the individual chosen to carry out the instructions and provisions of a will.

F

Family Group Sheet

A family group sheet is a form which presents genealogical information about a nuclear family – a husband, a wife, and their children. A family group sheet usually includes birth, death and marriage dates as well as the places for these events.

FamilySearch

You can find FamilySearch computers at the Family History Library of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or at one of the branch Family History Centers. The FamilySearch computer contains several databases of information: the Social Security Death Index, the Military Index, the Ancestral File, and the International Genealogical Index. You can use these resources to search for information about your family members right on the computer. You can also use the FamilySearch computer to look up items in the Family History Library Catalog. Because of the popularity of the FamilySearch computer, many Family History Centers require you to sign up for a time slot in advance.

Fee

Heritable land held in return for service to a lord.

Fee Simple

Ownership of land that can be inherited by any heirs.

Fee Tail

Ownership of land restricted to a specified class of heirs, generally direct descendants.

Freehold

Please see Fee Simple above.

Fuedal System

The system of land holding in exchange for service, ultimately to the king. This is opposed to the allodial system.

Gazetteer

A gazetteer is a book which alphabetically names and describes the places in a specific area. For example, a gazetteer of a county would name and describe all of the towns, lakes, rivers, and mountains in the county.

Gedcom

A way to post on a website or send to another user your family tree information across multiple platforms. For example, if you use one genealogy program and someone else uses a different program, your file may be read with either.

Grant

Transfer of title from the government to the first titleholder of a piece of property. This term is usually used by states and the federal government.

Grantee

A grantee is an individual who purchases or receives land.

Grantor

A grantor is the individual who sells or gives land.

Holographic Will

A holographic will is a handwritten will, and is signed by the individual that the will belongs to. Holographic and olographic wills are the same.

Homestead

A homestead is usually a home on land that is obtained from the United States government. Part of the agreement between the individual and the government was that the individual had to live on the land and make improvements to it, such as adding buildings and clearing fields, and than to live on that land for a certain amount of time.

Immigration

Immigration is when an individual goes into a new country to live.

Indenture

An indenture is a contract stating that an individual would work for another individual for a specific number of years. Many early immigrants to the United States came over as indentured servants where, someone else paid for their trip over, and in return, they had to work for the individual for several years. Please also see transportation.

Index

In genealogical terms, an index is an alphabetical list of names that were taken from a particular set of records. For example, a census record index lists the names of individuals that are found in a particular set of census records. Indexes mostly come in book form, but you can also find them on CD-ROM, microfilm, and microfiche.

Infant

A person within age, not of age, or not of full age; a person under the age of twenty-one years; a minor.

International Genealogical Index

The International Genealogical Index (IGI) is one of the resources of the Family History Library of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Containing over 260 million names, it is an index of people's names that were either submitted to the church, or were extracted from records that the church has microfilmed over the years. The IGI can be used to locate information about your ancestors. (Our note: while the LDS has vast amounts of genealogical information, which is a blessing, and most of the information is accurate, much of their information comes to them by everyday contributors, quite a bit of the time without sources or thorough checking. The LDS does not check contributor research. Check LDS info as you would any other research, with another source.)

International Reply Coupon

This coupon serves as payment for any international postage you may need to pay. They can be purchased at your local post office. See also SASE

Intestate

When a person dies without having made a legal will, their estate is intestate.

Inventory

An inventory is a legal list of all the property in a deceased person's estate. The executor of the will is required to make an inventory.

Issue

This term refers to an individual's children.

Land Records

Land records are deeds, proof that a piece of land is owned by a particular individual. The information you receive from the records will vary, but you will always get at least a name, the location of the property, and the period of ownership.

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Manumission

Manumission is the act of being released from slavery or servitude.

Manuscript

Manuscripts are usually unpublished family histories or collections of family papers. Depending on what the manuscript contains, you may be able to find all kinds of family information. Generally, you will find more than just names, birth dates, and death dates.

Marriage Bond

A marriage bond is document obtained by an engaged couple prior to their marriage. It affirmed that there was no moral or legal reason why the couple could not be married. In addition, the man affirmed that he would be able to support himself and his new bride.

Marriage Records

A marriage record contains information about a marriage between two individuals. On a marriage record, you can at least find the bride's and groom's full names, the date of the marriage, and county where the marriage took place. Many marriage records include other information, such as the names and birthplaces of the bride's and groom's parents, the addresses of the bride and groom, information about previous marriages, and the names of the witnesses to the marriage.

Metes and Bounds

A description of the boundaries of a piece of land that uses landmarks such as stones, hills, and trees.

Military Records

The US government has always kept records on all military and civilian workers. Most of these files have very detailed information, such as the individual's name, their spouse's name, date of birth, place of residence, which wars the individual served in, their military organization (Navy, Marines, or Army), when the individual's service began and ended, where and when the individual died, and where the individual was buried. The amount of information you get will depend on the record and the point at which the file began.

The National Archives has the following types of military records:

Pension records, bounty land records, service records, personnel records, draft or conscription records, regular military forces records, and burial or cemetery records.

Mortality Schedules

Mortality schedules counted the number of deaths that occurred in the year before the census was taken, and exist for the 1850 through 1880 censuses. This means that there are only four schedules currently available for the U.S. census. A mortality schedule lists the individual's name, age, sex, occupation, cause of death, date of death, and place of death by county.

Mulatto

A Mulatto is an individual with both Black and White heritage. This term will apear sometimes in wills or court records.

Naturalization Records

Naturalization records document the process by which an immigrant becomes a citizen. An individual has to live in the United States for a specific period of time and file a series of forms with a court before he or she can become naturalized. Naturalization records provide the following information: place and date of birth, date of arrival into the United States, place of residence at the time of naturalization, a personal description, and sometimes the name of the ship that the individual arrived on and the individual's occupation.

Née

Née literally means "born." It is usually used to refer to a woman's maiden name. For example, "Mary Lincoln, née Todd."

Negro

A term used mainly in the 18th through early 20th century to denote a person of black or African heritage. The term will sometimes appear in wills and also written histories of the times.

Next Friend

One that acts for the benefit of an infant, married woman or other persons not Sui Juris without being appointed a guardian. Also may mean one that is admitted to court to prosecute for an infant (as legally defined.)

Nuncupative Will

An oral will declared or dictated by the testator in his last sickness before a sufficient number of witnesses, and afterward reduced to writing.

Olographic Will

An olographic will is a handwritten will, and is signed by the individual that the will belongs to. Holographic and olographic wills are the same.

Passenger Lists

Passenger lists are lists of the names and information about passengers that travelled from one country to another on ships. These lists were submitted to customs collectors at every port by the ship's master. Passenger lists were not officially required by the United States government until 1820. Before that date, the information about each passenger varied widely, from names to number of bags. Beginning in 1893, U.S. lists recorded each individual's last residence, while in 1903, they started to record the ethnicity of each passenger, and in 1906, they began recording each individual's place of birth.

Patronymics

Patronymics is the practice of creating last names from the name of one's father. For example, Robert, whose father is John, would become Robert Johnson. Robert Johnson's son, George, would become George Robertson, and so on.

Pedigree Chart

A pedigree chart is a form for recording an individual's ancestry. It usually includes that person's parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, and so on, but does not include brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, and other relatives.

Primary Source

Primary sources are records that were created at the time of an event. For example, a primary source for a birth date would be a birth certificate. While you can find birth dates on other documents, such as marriage certificates, they would not be primary sources for the birth date, because they were not created at the time of the birth.

Probate Records

Probate records are records disposing of a deceased individual's property. They may include an individual's last will and testament, if one was made. The information you can get from probate records varies, but usually includes the name of the deceased, either the deceased's age at the time of death or birth date, property, members of the family, and the last place of residence.

Progenitor

A progenitor is a direct ancestor. For example, your father's father is your progenitor. Your father's father's brother is not your progenitor.

Public Domain

The public domain is land belonging to the U.S. government. Many homesteaders settled on public domain land in the mid-19th century.

Relict

A widow or widower, especially a woman whose husband has passed away. Seen mainly in 18th century court records.

SS-5 Social Security form

Please see Social Security Death Index below.

Self-Addressed Stamped Envelope (SASE)

When you request records or other information from people and institutions, you should include a self-addressed stamped envelope (SASE) in your letter. Of course, a SASE with U.S. postage stamps on it is only good in the United States. If you are expecting return mail from overseas, you should include an International Reply Coupon with your self-addressed envelope. This coupon serves as payment for any international postage you may need to pay. They can be purchased at your local post office.

Social Security Death Index

The Social Security Death Index is an index of Social Security Death records. You can find the following information in the Social Security Death Index:

• The individual's name and Soundex code.
• Birth date.
• Death date.
• Social Security number (see below for how to obtain a copy of the individual’s original SS-5 Social Security application)
• State where the number was issued.
• 77% of the records also contain the Zip Code of the individual's last known residence and the primary location associated with it.
• 15% of the records contain the Zip Code of the address where the death benefit payment was sent and the primary location associated with it.

  If you have an individual’s Social Security number, you can obtain a copy of his or her original application, known as a SS-5 form, for a Social Security card, which includes parents’ names and other important information.Many times, obtaining this form is of great help as it will either verify or dismiss a possible ancestor that you are unsure of. The only catch of course is that your ancestor be deceased. The SSA will not do a lookup for someone that is living.

To obtain a SS-5 form send U.S. $7 to:

Freedom of Information Officer
4-H-8 Annex Building
6401 Security Boulevard
Baltimore, MD 21235

Address your letter to the Freedom of Information Officer and include the s.s. number you are inquiring about, your name and address and your relationship to the deceased.

Soundex

Most last names can be spelled in a variety of ways. For example, our "Boone" line can also be spelled "Boon," "Baun," and "Baune." This is one of the reasons why the Works Progress Administration created Soundex in the late 1930's. Soundex is a method of giving names numeric codes. It was used by the United States government to index the surnames of some of the United States census records and ship passenger lists. By grouping together last names that sound similar, Soundex allows people to search for ancestors, even when the surname may have been recorded in any of several different spellings. Only the 1880, 1900, 1920, and part of the 1910 census have Soundex indexes. For soundex codes please see Soundex Machine below.

Soundex Machine

The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has a web page at the address below that converts surnames into soundex. When at the site, enter your surname query, submit your request and in moments the soundex code will appear. There will also be links to the 1790-1920 census microfilm catalogs (remember that only the 1880, 1900, 1920 and part of the 1910 census have soundex indexes.)
To go to the Soundex Machine please click here.

Sponsor

A sponsor is an individual other than the parents of a child that takes responsibility for the child's religious education. Sponsors are usually present at a child's baptism. Sponsors are often referred to as godparents.

Sui Juris

A person that does not possess full social or legal rights. In the case of a Sui Juris a Next Friend may be appointed.

Testator

A person who makes and leaves a legally valid will or testament at death.

Testatrix

A female testator (see above.)

Tithable

The word tithable, when it appears in seventeenth and eighteenth century records of Virginia, refers to a person who paid, or for whom someone else paid, one of the taxes that the General Assembly imposed for the support of the civil government in the colony. The terms "tithe" and "tithable" had ancient roots in English law and referred to the tax of the tenth portion of the livestock and certain other agricultural products for the support of the church. The term "tithable" developed a different and restricted meaning in seventeenth-century Virginia, where it came to apply to persons on whom the colony's tax laws assessed a poll tax or capitation tax, literally a tax on each "head." By 1658, when the assembly passed a law defining "What Persons are Tithable," a "tithable" was a member of the potentially productive labor force: free caucasian males age sixteen or older plus "all negroes imported whether male or female, and Indian servants male or female however procured, being sixteen years of age." Subsequent laws made the immigrants' descendants tithable, too. Slaves and servants did not pay their own taxes; their owners or masters were therefore "tithable" for themselves and for the taxes on their servants and slaves. Lists of tithables for a county or a household, then, do not enumerate anyone under the age of sixteen or any adult white woman unless they were heads of households.

Transportation

This word, sometimes found in court records of the British Isles, American Colonies and elsewhere during the eighteenth and nineteenth century, indicates a person convicted of a crime in Great Britain and "transported" to a British colony such as North America, Australia, New Zealand or the Caribbean. Many times the crime was petty and was used by many to escape Great Britain for wider spaces and a new start in life. Many of these transportees arrived at their destination as indentured servants and they remained so until their sentence was up. At that time the person was allowed to return to their land of birth. While a lifetime sentence was sometimes given (as in the penal colonies of Australia) a sentence of 7 years seems to have been a standard in sentencing.

Verbi Dei Minister

Abreviated V.D.M. the term means minister of the word of God.

Vital Records

Vital records document the "major" events of an individual's life: birth, marriage, death, and divorce. In general, vital records weren't kept in the United States, as was the case in most countries, until the early 1900s. If researching prior to the twentieth century in North America or Western Europe, finding out if your relatives were of a specific religious denomination will sometimes help. It depends on where you are researching but sometimes this is the only way to find records (The Roman Catholic Church in Ireland is a prime example as Irish records were not kept by the government until about 1865) and most are very willing to help (a rule of thumb is to send an offering. This is usually a small amount and pays for time and postage. You will need to send a SASE and probably an International Reply Coupon as well. Check to see what form of payment may be accepted.). Vital records usually contain the full name of the individual involved in the event, the date of the event, and the county, state, province or town where the event took place.