terminology
- Abstract - Summary of documents, esp. deeds and wills
- Administration (of estate) - The collection, management and distribution of an estate by proper legal process.
- Administrator - Person appointed to manage or divide the estate of a deceased person. Feminine administratrix.
- 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 one is descended; forefather.
- Ancestry - 1. Descent or lineage. 2. Ancestors collectively.
- 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 such records are stored.
- Attest - To affirm; to certify by signature or oath.
- Bequeath - To give personal property to a person in a will.
- Bond - A binding agreement to perform certain actions or duties or be required to pay a specified sum of money as a penality.
- Bounty land - Land promised as reward or inducement for enlisting in military service.
- Census - A periodic offical count of population.
- Common Ancestor - One shared by any two or more people.
- Conveyances - deeds.
- Deceased - Dead.
- Deed - A document sealed as an instrument of bond, contract, or conveyance, esp. pertaining to property.
- Descendancy - A persons offspring, children, grandchildren, and succeeding generations.
- Descendant - Offspring of a person, even into remote generations.
- Devise - To give property, usually land, in a will.
- Devisee - One to whom property is given in a will.
- Devisor - One who gives property in a will.
- 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.
- Enumeration - Listing or counting, such as a census.
- Estate - All property and debts belonging to a person.
- Executor - One appointed in a will to carry out the provisions.Feminine: executrix
- Genealogy - 1. A record or table of ancestory. 2. Direct descent from an ancestor. 3. The study of ancestory.
- Given name - Name given to a person at birth or baptism; one’s first and middle name.
- Grantee - One’s who buys property or receives a grant.
- Grantor - One who sells property or makes a grant.
- Heir - One entitled by law or by terms of a will to inherit property from another.
- Illegitimate - Born to a mother who was not married to the child’s father.
- Indentured servant - One bound into the service of another person for a specified number of years, often in return for transportation to this country.
- Intestate - One who dies without a will; One dying without a will.
- Issue - Offspring; children; descendants.
- Late - Recently deceased; now deceased.
- Legacy - Property or money left to someone in a will.
- Legatee - One who inherits money or property through a will.
- Lineage - Ancestry; direct descent from a specific ancestor.
- Maiden name - A girl’s surname before marriage.
- Maternal - Related through one’s mother. Maternal grandmother is the mother’s mother.
- Microfiche - A sheet of microfilm containing rows of pages in reduced form.
- Microfilm - 1. A film on which documents are photographed greatly reduced in size. 2. A reproductioon on microfilm.
- Mortality - Death; death rate.
- Namesake - Person named after another person.
- Patent - Grant of land from a government to an individual.
- Paternal - Related through one’s father. Paternal grandmother is the father’s mother.
- Pedigree - Family tree; ancestry; lineage.
- 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.
- Poll - List or record or persons, esp. for taxing or voting; one head or taxable person.
- Probate - Legal process of determining that a will is valid before authorizing distributin of the estate, appointing someone to administer an intestate estate, and overseeing the settlements of estates.
- Progenitor - 1. A direct ancestor. 2. An originator of a line of descent.
- Relict - Widow.
- Sic - Latin. thus; copied exactly as the orginial reads.
- Surname - One’s last name.
- Territory - Area of land owned by the United States, not a state, but having its own legislature and governor.
- Testator - Person who makes a valid will before death.
- Tithable - Taxable; a person who owes tax to a specified jurisdiction.
- Vital records - Records of birth, death, marriage, divorce.
- Vital statistics - Data dealing with birth, death, marriage, divorce.
- Warranty deed - Deed in which the settler of the property guarantees a clear title to the buyer.
- Will - A legal declaration of how a person wishes one’s posessions to be disposed of after one’s death.
