Old Genealogy Terms

• GLEBE LANDS – (COLONIAL AMERICA) Lands set aside by the English Crown strictly for the use and benefit of a church
• GOODS and CHATTELS – Personal property before the Civil War both slaves and livestock were personal property
• GOODY – Housewife or old woman
• GRANGE – A small farm community or even a farmhouse
• GRASS WIDOW – Unmarried woman usually with children who lived with one or more men
• GUARDIAN – A person appointed by the court to care for someone who was not capable of caring for themselves
• HEADRIGHT – (COLONIAL AMERICA) The right to a certain number of acres (usually 50) guaranteed in advance to the male head of a family for settling a new territory
• HEAD TAX – A Poll tax or tax on the person
• HEIR – A person who inherits by the conditions of a will or by the right of law
• HIGH SHERRIFF – The highest ranking sheriff in an area such as a county sheriff
• HIDE – (OLD ENGLISH) A measure of land from 60 to 120 acres
• HOLOGRAPHIC WILL – One written by hand in the persons own writing and bearing the signature of the maker
• HUNDRED – (COLONIAL AMERICA/ OLD ENGLISH) A term referring to and administrative or military district Smythe’s Hundred was an area rather than a hundred people
• INDENTURE – A contract where a person is bound over for service (often young men were indentured to learn a trade)
• INDENTURED SERVANT – The person bound over for service, it also was used to mean a person who sold their self into labor for passage to another country
• INDIDEM (Latin) – meaning to come from the same place or thing
• INATION – Death by starvation

• INTESTATE – Dying without leaving a will
• INTERMARRIED – To be related or connected to another by marriage
• ILLEGITIMATE – A child born out of wedlock
• INVENTORY – A list of goods belonging to the estate of a deceased person
• ISSUE – Descendants of a common ancestor (offspring or children)
• ITEM – A term meaning the start of a new paragraph or wish of the maker (many times numbered Item 1)
• JOIN TOGETHER – Common term for a marriage
• JUDGEMENT – The final decision or ruling of a judge or court
• KEELER – A small wooden vessel to hold milk
• KINDRED – A group that are blood relatives
• KITH and KIN (OLD ENGLISH) Meaning friends and neighbors
• LATE or OF LATE – Reference to a person who had recently died
• LEGACY – Typically a gift of money left by a deceased to someone
• LETTERS of TESTAMENT – A document issued by a court in a probate proceeding giving authority of the executor to perform his duties outlined in the will
• LEVY – A poll or capitalization tax
• LIEN – A claim for the property or goods belonging to another to secure the payment of a debt or obligation
• LIFE ESTATE – Besides a dower many times a widow was given a life estate or commonly referenced as lending to the wife certain property for her natural life many times with the clause or stipulation that she would not remarry
• LINE of CONSANGUINITY – Direct line descended from one another, grandfather, father, son
• LOOSE PAPERS – Original papers supporting a court record
• LOYALIST – (COLONIAL AMERICA) A Tory one loyal to England
• MAJORITY – Age at which one is no longer a minor
• MARRIAGE BOND – A document to secure the performance of an intended marriage
• MARK – (ENGLISH CURRENCY) Three marks equaled two pounds
• MATERNAL LINE – Line traced thru the mothers ancestry
• MILITIA – Citizen soldiers an army formed by common people
• MINISTERS RETURN - The written record of marriages performed by a minister normally given to the court clerk to make a permanent record
• MORTALITY SCHEDULES – A list of deaths that occurred in the year prior to the Census kept from 1850-1880. It also contained foot notes describing the various diseases or epidemics for a county in that year
• MULATTO – The offspring of a white person and a black although it could mean any mix of races even Indians
• MUSTER OUT – A legitimate discharge from military service
• NECROLOGY – List of obituaries or records of deaths
• NEE – Normally refers to a woman’s maiden name, born as
• NUNCUPATIVE WILL – An oral will given in the hours before their death, with at least two witnesses and written on paper soon after
• NOW WIFE – A will related term meaning there was a former wife