This listing is from Treasures of the Past
Common Terms
Administrator (dam.) - one who manages the estate of a person who died without a
will (intestate)
Affidavit - written statement made under oath before an officer of the court, a
notary public, or other person legally authorized to certify the statement
Alias – means many things including illegitimate
Ancestor – person from whom one is descended in a direct line. For example:
parent, grandparent, great grandparent
Baseborn – illegitimate
Bedder – person who tends to the breeding and birthing of cattle
Bibliography – list of writings on a particular subject or by a particular
author
Binding out – contract with a business man to raise the child, educate and
teach him a skill in return the businessman would have the benefit of the child’s
labor and sometimes a small stipend from the court
Collateral lines – persons descended from a common ancestor but not in the
direct line, for example: aunt, uncle or cousin
Consort – husband or wife
Crazy – in the 17th and 18th century, feeble in health
Decedent – means a deceased person
Depondent - one who gives evidence especially in writing
Document (noun) – original work or official record that furnishes
information for evidence
Document (verb) – provide reference to the source of information for a
statement of fact
Dower right – the wife was entitled to 1/3 of the property her husband had
at the time of their marriage or which they acquired after their marriage. To keep the husband from selling the roof over
her head. The officials had to ask the wife without the husband in the room
if she agreed to the sale.
Dragoon – heavily armed, mounted cavalryman
D.S.P. – died sine prole – died without issue
Edom die – same place, same day (church records)
Emigrant – one who leaves a country for residence in another country
Engagement child – child born less than nine months from marriage
Estate (Est.) – estate or property of a deceased person
Et al.(Et alia) – latin phrase for “and others”
Et ux. (Et usor) – latin phrase “and wife”
Executor (Ex.) – one who manages the estate of a person who died leaving a
will (testate)
Federal land records – records created by the surveying and disposal of the
public domain
Frank marriage – arranged marriage
Geek – carnival performer who specialized in biting heads off chickens
Glebe – belonging to the church or assigned to the minister as part of his
pay
Good brother – brother-in-law
Good mother – mother-in-law
Grantee – person or party purchasing or receiving property
Grantor – person or party selling or disposing of property
Hangby – a dependent
Hard money – metal coins
Husbandman – farmer
Ibid – latin for ibidem, in the same place, used in referring again to the
book, page, etc, cited just before
Immigrant – one who entered a country of which he is not a citizen with the
intention of establishing permanent residence
Immigrant ancestor – first person in ancestral line to come to America
Indenture – deed or legal agreement refers to document whose top edge was
scalloped (or indented) to indicate authenticity
Inlaw – married into the family, formal, a legally appointed guardian or
informally “he was like a father to me”
Intestate – pertaining to the estate of a person who died without a valid
will
Instrument – a legal document
Junior, Senior – before the twentieth century these were just nicknames the
community used to distinguish between persons called by the same name
Kill devil – rum
Knobstick marriage – shotgun wedding
Land grant – land conveyed by a government to a private party, document
transferring title to land from the government to a private party
Land grave – 48,000 acres in South Carolina
League – about 3 miles
Ledger stone – flat, large horizontal stone which covered a grave
Leech house – hospital
Legal tender – also known as current money or old tender. The tender was legally set by the government for
payment and persons were bound by law to accept it
Letter of Administration – the act of a probate court or an instrument
issued by a probate court in which an administrator often a next of kin is given the
authority to administer the goods and estate of a deceased person. Letters of administration are often applied for
when the deceased had property but left no will in which case that person is said to have
died intestate
Lien – a claim on property used as security for some debt
Lineage – descent in line from an ancestor, for example parents,
grandparents and great grandparents
Metes & bounds – refers specifically to boundary lines and limits of a
piece of land. They are defined by reference to natural or artificial monuments ,such as
trees, roads, ditches, rivers, etc. This
method of describing land boundaries was used exclusively before the passage of Land Act
of 1785 and the introduction of the rectangular survey system. In states not affected by that law this method of
describing land continued in use. It is also
used in connection with the rectangular survey system to describe a tract of land once a
starting point is located within the system but compass directions are used in the
description more often than geographical features.
Nabob – a rich man
Napkins – a stack of diapers
Natural child – now the term natural child usually refers to a biological
child as opposed to an adopted or foster child. Then
it was an illegitimate child or a child born to a couple whose marriage was not recognized
by a recording agency
Neat saddle – domestic bovine animals
Nephew – any person related to you and most of the time but not always a
generation or more younger
Non public land states – twenty states not formed out of the public domain,
state land states
Now wife – not necessarily indicating a former wife but designating the one
to inherit
Oral history – information about past events gathered from oral sources
Ordinary – a public house or inn where meals are served and sometimes
sleeping space was sold
Orphan chamber – orphan’s court
Orphans – children referred to as orphans by the court when the husband dies
and wife is still alive
Outcry, have a – have auction
Pannier – one of two baskets or bags slung over the back of a beast of
burden
Parish – a county in Louisiana
Patent – document conveying legal title to public land to a private party
Perch – 16 ½ feet, same as a rod or pole, also 1/160 of an acre
Prescription – permission to use something as though it were your own
Probate – act of providing that a will was signed and otherwise executed
according to legal requirements of determining its validity
Probate court – a court with the authority to probate wills and to deal with
all matters connected with probate records
